Ikkitōsennomusha
by Onichun
Summary: Naruto was taken away from the village within his first days alive, now he along with his sensei and a relative have returned to Konoha to fulfill his dream and ambition but the road there is long. [Dropped]
1. Genin!

Latest story aight, NaruTem fic for 100 percent, though that is in the future, like five chapters maybe. It will practically be an AU story, this is for sure because I have made a lot of changes in past events in the Naruto Universe here. It will all be revealed in due time, but one change is Naruto's treatment. Please review.

Disclaimer: I not own Naruto in any form.

* * *

The rumor were fast spreading through Konoha, apparently the latest batch of Gennin from the academy had all been nominated to undergo the Gennin examinations. The three teams had now been dubbed as the rookie 9. This was what the three travelers heard from the owner of the most well known ramen stand in all of Konoha, Ichiraku. 

"So, what did I tell you gaki, these guys had the best ramen ever right?" the tallest of the three said as he finished his second bowl of ramen.

"I admit sensei that I was wrong," the shortest said as he finished his twelfth bowl.

"I still prefer barbeque and dimsum over this stuff," said the last one grumpily as he finished his seventh bowl.

"I still don't get it, we're supposed to be related yet you don't love ramen, sensei said that otou-san loved the stuff too." The shortest said.

"Well maybe it is because we're only cousins and out mothers were sisters, I'm not related to your father in any way." The grumpy member said.

"Well let's get to business, we have an exam to nominate you for," the tallest member and also the by far oldest one said as he paid for the meal.

"Hai sensei," the two younger boys responded as they walked off.

* * *

The hokage sat at his desk going through the last nominations for the Chūnin exam when the door to his office was opened with a loud bang. "Can't you see I'm busy!" the aging man said without looking up from his pappers. 

"Sarutobi-sensei, I didn't think this would be the way you would greet your returning student and the two heirs that left twelve years ago," the intruder said.

The old man look up from his pappers and saw the telltale white hair, green clothes and red west belonging to the one and only Gama-sennin of the sannin. "Jiraiya-kun, you're back. Truthfully I expected you to be back three years ago to let Kai-Wei take the Gennin exam."

"About that, that's completely Tsunade's fault, she took him for four years and trained him, I got him back a year ago and then I had to teach him some Fūin jutsu and increase his jutsu library which was relatively small then," the white haired man defended himself.

"Hai, that's correct, Tsunade-san taught me over a four year period," a dark haired boy said as he walked through the doors. He was garbed in loose black pants, an opened black gi revealing a fishnet shirt underneath and his neck was covered by a black shawl.

Behind the dark haired boy came another person that was much shorter and veiled in mystery due to his brown cloak and hood with only a few blonde bangs sticking out through the hood, however the hokage instantly guessed who it was. "I guess you're Naruto then," the hokage said to the newest arrival and received a nod from the boy.

"Sarutobi-sensei, I'm here to enroll these in the Chūnin exams and for them to receive their hitai-ate," Jiraiya said.

"But they are just two, don't you think it'll be a little too much for them too handle, also this means more paperwork for me," the hokage complained.

"They'll handle it, you don't know half of what these brats can do," Jiraiya said proudly, "They will surpass the Yondaime with most likelihood."

"Yeah, so get ready to give up that chair to me old man," the youngest said confidently as he took of his cloak and hood revealing the same clothes as the other boy but in a navy blue color.

"Che Naruto, I'll be the next hokage, given that the hokage don't nominate a new hokage within the next five years, it's not like one can hope to become hokage before twenty," Kai said.

"So Uzumaki Kai and Uzumaki Naruto will be nominated for the Chūnin exams then," the hokage said.

"Why Uzumaki? That was our mothers family name…" the two boys questioned.

"Simply because no one knows that you two survived, and we certainly don't want your families enemies to know about your survival, only when you reach Jōnin will your real names be revealed," the hokage said as he opened a drawer and took out two Hitai-ate from it.

"Understood hokage-sama," Kai said as he took the Hitai-ate from the hokage that was offered to him.

"I need the two of you to fill in these and take some photos for your Ninja license," the hokage continued. "The Chūnin exams will take place next Wednesday so be there at ten A.M. you can leave now."

"Thank Sarutobi-sensei," Jiraiya said as he led his two students out side.

When they got into the hallway Kai was quick to run up to the two guards stationed outside the doors and stretched out his hands, "Now give them back," he said. Soon he had three weapons in his hands that he was quick to fit into place. He strapped on of the kodachi to his waist with the hilt tilting to the left and the other kodachi was strapped to his back jutting out above his right shoulder and handled in his hand was a long spear with one end covered in a bag.

"Come on, get over with your mushy time with that polearm of yours Kai-niisan," Naruto said before running out as fast as he could when Kai turned to him.

"I'll show you how much Seiryutou can hurt you Naruto!" Kai yelled as he took off after his cousin while Jiraiya was just shaking his head in embarrassment at his students before he left to do some research, after all, they both knew where to find him later.

After two hours of changing Naruto who made a constant use of bunshin only to be replicated by Kai, Kai had finally cornered the original. "Now Naruto, beg for mercy!" he demanded.

"No, not going to happen," Naruto said defiantly.

"Your loss," Kai said before he sent Naruto airborne with a mighty smash that knocked him out in the process, "And it's ten points to Kai!" Kai declared as he saw Naruto go down in the women's onsen, however the expected outcry did not come. _'Kuso, he used "that" jutsu,'_

Jiraiya was contently looking through a hole in the fence that surrounded the female's onsen when a large splash obscured his view before it calmed down and a familiar person was seen sitting in the onsen. _'I really have to get the boys to teach me that jutsu, then I could be inside with the women instead of standing here in the cold. My jutsu is good but Tsunade can see through it, this one she can't.'_

* * *

"So Naruto, I've been wondering something ever since you came out from the onsen, was there any pretty girls in there or what? You had quite the blush," Kai asked his younger cousin. To him the response said it all, or rather the lack of response he received. 

"Shut up Kai-niisan!" Naruto said in anger, making his cousin to burst out laughing.

"Well maybe you have the luck to encounter her at the Chūnin exams, the exams are pretty large, you remember them back in Kusa right? There were tons of people there."

"Yeah, I remember. Sensei was off peeping all the time there," Naruto responded, "And it seems it would not be better this time around!" the blond yelled out, startling the white haired sennin in his perch behind some bushes looking through the fence.

"You know sensei, for a shinobi you're very bad at hiding when doing your 'research'." Kai said to their sensei that had come out of his hiding.

"Well I don't have that Oiroke no Jutsu of yours," Jiraiya huffed, "And don't try to deny that you have used it for that, I know you have Kai." Kai was momentarily frozen and a quick flush appeared on his face before disappearing after a second.

"So what, it have many uses," Kai said nonchalantly.

"You used the jutsu for that Kai-niisan!" Naruto said shocked.

"Well how about we find somewhere to stay, I think there will be plenty of full hotels with the upcoming exams afterall, I've seen several shinobi from other village so we better find a room sooner than later," Kai said, switching the subject.

"No worry, I have a house already also we have two clan compounds to our disposal," Jiraiya said as they started to walk, Jiraiya leading the way through the maze that was Konoha.

After half an hour of walking around on the street they stopped by a house at the outskirts of the forest surrounding Konoha nearby one of the training grounds. It was a two story house of large proportions and it even had its own onsen. "Figures he would have a onsen," the two gennin deadpanned in unison at seeing the hotspring.

"Ha, you should see the clan compounds, they have even larger hotsprings than I do," Jiraiya said to his students as he opened up the door with his key. The door opened and revealed a large hallway that was in dire need of cleaning, the whole house was in dire need of cleaning.

"You two, clean up this place. Here you have a key each, I need to talk with the hokage." Jiraiya said before he jumped off leaving the two boys with their keys.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" they both said and ten clones popped into existence and started to clean the house that the two boys left after locking the door.

Pretty soon the two boys were roaming about the streets of Konoha, learning the environment and location of all the places of importance like where the training grounds were, the restaurants and they were still looking for a particular weapons store Jiraiya had told them about, they were apparently the best out of the best according to Jiraiya. And both boys were in dire need of new Kunai and Shuriken, having spent all of theirs last week.

"Where is that damn weapons store," Kai complained as he started to twirl his polearm.

"I don't get how you can do that, that thing weight's a ton," Naruto said as he watched his cousin spin the weapon.

"It's only twenty-five kilograms, for you though it feels something like ten times of that, not a ton, at least according to my fathers notes it should be something like that." Kai said to his cousin as he continued twirling his weapon.

"Still…" Naruto said as they rounded a corner and saw two Suna nin confronting two Konoha nin, the male suna nin holding up a young boy by his shawl.

"You know, I really hate brats," said the suna nin holding the boy. The Suna nin was oddly dressed in what looked like a black baby suit with two cat ears and his face had a lot of paint on it.

Kai stood there watching things as they unfolded uninterested in what the suna nin said, what interested him was what he saw his cousin doing, he was blushing when he saw the ones present at the scene. '_hn, either it's the pink haired or the blonde,'_

"You should put him down, we were just fooling around," said the nervous pink haired genin. The suna nin just scoffed, he was obviously not willing to put down the boy as they all saw him reel back his arm to punch the boy when a rock hit him hard on the wrist, making him drop the boy.

"You should know not to make scene when on foreign ground, this can have serious diplomatic consequences," said an arrogant voice from the tree to Naruto's right. Out of the tree jumped a raven haired boy in Naruto's age clad in a blue shirt with the Uchiha clan crest and white pants.

"You know one would almost think that they were here to wage war with how they behave," Kai said to Naruto, just loud enough for everyone to hear, making the suna nin freeze up.

"Kankurō, you're an embarrassment to our village!" said a voice from within the same tree as the Uchiha had come from, sending shivers of dread up Kankurō's spine.

In a swirl of sand a boy with red hair appeared. He was clad in black clothes and over his back was a gourd slung. "You!" the boy said pointing to the Uchiha, "What's your name?"

"Uchiha Sasuke," the raven haired boy responded, "Your name?"

"Sabaku no Gaara," the redhead said before he turned around, "Temari, Kankurō, we're leaving," the two Suna nin followed obediently like dogs, strange in Kai's mind since they looked like the older ones, especially the kunoichi who looked to be around his age.

"You two," the Uchiha said turning around to the Uzumakis, "I haven't seen you before, yet you bear Konoha's Hitai-ate."

"Hai, we just became gennin of Konoha," the blond said while the dark haired just stared straight forward not caring about the Uchiha.

"Hn, you're probably too weak to have passed before now," the Uchiha said arrogantly as he started to walk away.

Naruto was angry; this Uchiha who had an air of self-importance and arrogancy around him had found a way to push his buttons just as good as his cousin who had learned how to do it over eight years. There were two things that Naruto disliked, arrogance and open perverts. He was about to teach the Uchiha a lesson when he felt a firm grip on his right shoulder, looking up he saw the face of his cousin looking dangerously at him with a glint in the eye Naruto hadn't seen in years. This was going to be fun, oh so fun Naruto concluded as he relaxed his stature.

The two Konoha gennin had followed the Uchiha while the kids that had been at the scene had left. "Let's find that weapon store Naruto, and then start planning our plot against this Uchiha kid, we'll show him just what our clans can do."

* * *

It wasn't until hours later, ten minutes before the store was closing they found it. It was a fairly large store with a wide array of weapons, though most were of no interest for the two genin as what they were looking for was only kunai and shuriken. 

"Hi boys, see anything you like?" said a slightly burly man that came out from the depths of the store greeting them.

"Yeah, we would like to have five hundred kunai and the same amount of shuriken, also twenty fūma shuriken and I would like to inquire if it is possible for you to make kunai such as these," the oldest of the two said as he produced a three pronged kunai from a pocket.

"These are..." The man exclaimed as he was given the kunai seeing a nod from both the boys.

"We are trying to replicate the technique, though we need more than this single kunai to understand it," the blond said.

"Yes I can make these, however it'll cost you and take some time. Especially considering your already large order and all the orders I have for this upcoming exam. I might be able to make some in a months time when the exams should be coming to a closure," the weapon store owner said.

"Ah, it's not a problem, we just wondered if you could make them, we have no real hurry in getting them, however the other supplies would we need now as we have test in a weeks time to attend to," Kai said.

"Do you have a lot of money? Unfortunately for you I only have my high quality weapons left in that quantity and they are more expensive than the usual stuff. The shuriken and kunai will be 50 ryō a piece and the fūma shuriken is 500 ryō," the man questioned.

"Not a problem," Kai said yet again as he snatched something from Naruto's pocket.

"Hey! That's mine!" Naruto complained as his cousin took out a wad of ryō bills from the toad shaped wallet before throwing back the wallet to its owner.

"That should be sixty thousand ryō," Kai said as he gave the store owner the money for their supplies. To say that he had been surprised when this mere genin had been able to produce that amount of money would be and understatement. From what he heard, everyday, the gennin salary was not that good with an average of two thousand ryō per D-rank.

"Tenten-chan!" the store owner called out and the face of a girl appeared in the doorway from the workshop.

"What is it?" the girl asked.

"Five hundred kunai and shuriken and twenty fūma shuriken, the high quality ones," he told the girl who at first had her jaw dropping before she disappeared into the depths of the store getting the large amount of weapons.

The storeowner went inside the small office located behind the counter and put the money in a safe. "You know, usually people just buy maybe twenty kunai and shuriken and a pair of fūma shuriken," the man said to his two customers.

"Well we waste a lot of kunai and shuriken, it's to much work to collect the stuff, though Naruto here might do it sometimes," Kai said.

"Is that a naginata?" the store owner questioned as he pointed to the weapon Kai held in his right hand, the cloth covering what he supposed was the blade.

"No, it's a Guan Dao called Seiryutou,"

"And he loves the damn weapon," said the blond before he was smacked on the head by his older companion.

"Mind if I have a look at it?" the store owner asked.

"Sure go ahead mister…" Kai said as he untied the cloth that covered up the blade part of the polearm.

"Ah, I forgot to introduce myself before didn't I, I'm Haya Kensuke and I'm the owner of this store," the man said. He stretched out one hand to take the blade but was advised to use both hands when taking the blade. He was confused but complied but as he took the weapon he understood, he was almost sent crashing to the ground by the weapon's weight. It was a good thing that he still was in a rather decent shape considering he had quit the ninja profession twenty years ago.

The girl walked into the store just as Kensuke had gotten up to a standing position letting the polearm stand on the ground as he inspected it. "It's a fine blade, but it's heavy." The man said.

"Yeah, it's a blood seal on it so no one outside of my family is able to wield it without a great effort," Kai said.

"Ah, Tenten-chan, there you are. These two are the ones that will have all those weapons," Kensuke said as he motioned to the two boys. The girl raised and eyebrow, these guys were able to afford that amount of weapons, and they seemed to still be genin just like she was and she wasn't able to afford all this stuff in one fell swoop, and still she was getting a large discount as she worked in this store. She dropped off the box with supplies and went back to the back of the store where she continued with her work of doing an inventory of everything.

"Well thank you very much Kensuke-san, we got to go now and I guess you and your daughter have to close down your store, it's after closing time already," Kai said as Naruto picked up the box of weapons.

"She's not my daughter, she's actually an orphan who works for me in her freetime after her work as a kunoichi is over. It's sad really, the Kyuubi's attack left our village with many orphans in this generation," the store owner said quietly to the two.

The Naruto's head fell a little at hearing this, he knew that he wasn't the Kyuubi, yet he couldn't help but feel guilty over the death caused by the monster fox. The fox had caused so much grief in Konoha and destroyed the lives of many.

The two "Uzumakis" walked out the store and headed towards their house where they stayed with their sensei, but not before stopping and eating something along the road.

* * *

"So it's completely sealed then?" the hokage questioned his student as they were finishing their talks, long after what he had expected. 

"Hai, it would seem that the seal was weakening, if only slightly but we decided to seal it, overruling the old seal and fully cutting off the fox's chakra," Jiraiya told his old sensei.

"Hm, your other news was disturbing to say the least," Sarutobi said as he puffed on his pipe, "How did you get your hands on that information?"

"Through some contacts," Jiraiya said in a tone that said that had been all he was going to explain about it.

"Luckily you will be here and hopefully Tsunade I understand,"

"Yes, I doubt she would miss the exams, now that she have an apprentice in them and all and a large bet over who goes to the finals. She also see's this as the perfect gambling opportunity with all the bets that usually comes with the exams."

"This is very much appreciated though; I'll have some precautions set up in case this scenario you told me about really does occur."

"Very well Sarutobi-sensei, I believe it's time for me to take my leave or I'll come home to a nasty surprise." Jiraiya said as he walked out of the office leaving his sensei to think about what he had been told.

* * *

The week before the exam had been spent around the area of Jiraiya's house, the two genin only leaving to eat lunch and dinner in town which much to Kai's chagrin often consisted of ramen from Ichiraku. Sure he could eat it but he could not take it for seven days in a row. 

It was the day of the exam and the two genin met outside the academy one hour earlier than the others; it was always good to scout out the competition and prepare a special welcome for a certain genin. They sat there waiting and they recognized the girl that worked in the weapons shop walking inside with what they supposed was her team.

"Can you really wear that kind of thing and be allowed to live Kai-niisan?" Naruto questioned to his cousin who shaked his head sorrowfully."

"I don't know Naruto, I don't know. Did you see his eyebrows though, it almost looked like they were alive, and his haircut," Kai visibly shuddered at the thought.

As the two cousins conversed they saw the Uchiha and his team walk towards the academy, "Prime target in sight," they both said as they took out a shuriken each poising it for the throw. As the Uchiha was about to walk through the door they both threw their shuriken that graciously flew through the air and cut two wire holding up two bags above the entrance.

There was a loud outcry heard from the outside of the academy making everyone standing in the hallway turn towards the main door from which the yell had come from. When the door was opened it revealed team seven standing there, what one the spectators were shocked about was the Uchiha's hair, it was just the same shade of pink as his teammate's, still dripping with the pink dye, coloring his blue shirt as well.

"Uzumaki, one, Uchiha, zero." The two Uzumakis said from their perch before jumping down on the ground, walking into the academy. They were soon met with the view of an angry Uchiha Sasuke trying to force his way through two Chūnin in henge.

"I'm not in the mood for your stupid genjutsu release it now and let us go to the third floor, this is just the second floor!" the survivor said through gritted teeth as he saw the looks of mirth he was given from the majority of the present gennin.

"You're not in the mood Uchiha? You took the wrong perfume, didn't like the smell of cherries?" Sasuke heard from behind and there stood the two genin he had met a week ago on the streets when the suna nin had threatened the grandson of the hokage.

"You! You two did this!" the Uchiha said as he pointed towards his dyed hair.

"Accusing your own comrades, you know we're supposed to be from the same village you know," the blond boy said waving it off, "Might have been Oto though, heard they are real sissies using underhanded tactics."

The two genin was gone before Sasuke could rebuff having gotten past the two Chūnin that had stood there before they could react. "I didn't know you could hold pre exams for the exams," Kai whispered to the one with bandage's before disappearing.

"It's funnier this way and it weeds out the really weak, even if we were found out by the Uchiha who ruined the point," the Chūnin responded, knowing that the boy most likely still was within earshot, receiving a light laughter that died down in the distance proving just that.

The two Chūnin release the genjutsu they had cast over the whole hallway before walking through the door they had protected that now were revealed to be room 201 and not 301 as was the one the genin wanted to get into.

Kai and Naruto navigated to room 301 where they saw a silver haired man standing reading a orange book that the two of the would recognize from anywhere. "Hey you two, where is your third team mate, you know that you have to have a full team to be allowed into the exam right?" the Jōnin said without looking up from his book. _'One of them have high Chūnin level amounts of chakra and the other have high level genin,'_ he remarked to himself.

"Just let us through the door," the oldest of the two said, "We're allowed into this exam even without a third teammate."

"I'm afraid I can't do that," the silver haired man said as he turned another page in his book.

"I'll give you this if you let us through the door," Kakashi looked up and saw that the darkhaired boy held something he had been searching high and low for but hadn't been able to find.

"The ultra rare golden edition of Icha Icha Paradise, only thirty copies were made!" the silver haired Jōnin exclaimed as he dropped his own book to the floor, something that hadn't happened ever before.

"Do we have a deal Ero-Jōnin?" the blond asked and received a vigorous nod from the enthusiastic man.

"However still you owe us one for this, it was hard to get my hands on a couple of these and they are hard to come by," Kai said and just received another nod as he handed the book to the man who stepped to the side allowing the two to step inside.

"I only have two copies of them left," Kai complained as he walked inside the doors and patted a pouch that was hidden at his left side.

"I still can't understand how you can read that stuff, and then also make it out alive in the presence of Tsunade having them on your person," Naruto said shaking his head.

"When you're older you'll understand Naruto. With Tsunade it all revolve about being careful and always be on your alert, else you're dead meat, as our sensei so kindly showed us,"

"Hey you guys! You finally…" they heard a loud voice call out and they and saw a boy with a fur lined jacket walk towards the door into the room before he doubled over and started to laugh. Following him was some other genin from Konoha that started to snicker at seeing the new arrivals.

"Shut up Kiba," the pink haired girl said to the boy who laughed loudly.

"What happened to you Sasuke-kun?" a blonde asked as she threw herself at the Uchiha survivor taking a firm grip on the boy. "You smell like cherries, don't tell me…" the blonde looked at the pink haired member of the team, "you got Sasuke-kun forehead!?" the blonde said angrily.

"It isn't like that Ino-buta, there was two genin that dropped pink dye and perfume in Sasuke's hair just outside the academy," the pink haired girl said angrily searching for the culprits.

"They must have been skilled then, they didn't hit his shirt," Kiba said as he managed to hold his laughter for a second before he burst out laughing again.

"It was drenched, fortunately Kakashi-sensei was so kind that he went and got a spare for Sasuke-kun," the pink haired girl said.

Kiba who just had managed to get his laughter under control started to laugh again at hearing this. "Man I wanna meet those guys, they should have a medal," ¨Kiba said and received dark looks from the present females.

Another team arrived at the scene where Kiba was about to be pounced by three females, ending up between the girls and their prey. "Hinata-sama, what is happening here?" a boy with white eyes asked a girl with the same eyes as him.

"It's nothing Neji-oniisan, we were just talking about how Sasuke-kun was attacked outside the academy just now," the girl named Hinata responded.

"There they are!" Sakura exclaimed and pointed an accusing finger towards Kai and Naruto.

"Really Sakura-san, you should be more quiet, don't you feel how tense the atmosphere already is and everyone have directed their attention to us now," Neji said to his cousins friend.

"Your Hyuga friend is right you know, anyone could attack you now since there are no proctors here, you're the rookie nine and a for the Chūnin exams new team correct?" a silver haired genin asked. "Let me give you all a piece of advice little cute gennin, don't draw attention to you."

"And you are?" Sasuke questioned.

"Yakushi Kabuto, a veteran at these test, I've done them seven times already," the silver haired genin responded.

"Really, then you can't be any good, I bet we'll beat your ass in the exams," Kiba said confidently.

"I don't have enough chakra to complete the whole exam," Kabuto said. "Is there any guy that interest you, I have info on every nin present here with the help of my nin cards."

"Yes, I would like to know about Sabaku no Gaara and those two," Sasuke said as he pointed to Kai and Naruto.

"Well you have a name, but the other will take a little while to find." Kabuto said as he started to shuffle through the deck of cards.

"They are blank," Kiba pointed out.

"Yes, they work when I charge my chakra into them and the information will become visible." Kabuto explained as he a card materialized revealing information about Gaara, "Sabaku no Gaara is the same age as you guys and have completed 24 C-rank, 7 B-rank and 1 A-rank, very impressive for his age. His Taijutsu is mediocre at best, genjutsu is the same and ninjutsu is strong. It also says he have returned from the missions without a scratch. His teammates is Sabaku no Temari and Sabaku no Kankurō and sensei is Baki."

The rookie nine and the other Konoha team just stared at their senior Konoha genin in disbelief. "He must be strong to return unharmed from such missions, how troublesome," one of them said.

"Now about your two friends over there… It took a while to find them but I finally did it. Uzumaki Kai, fifteen years old. Teammate Uzumaki Naruto… What?!" Kabuto exclaimed as he stared at the two cards in his hands.

"What is it Kabuto-san?" Sakura asked the silver haired genin.

"I have no more information, and it's the same with Uzumaki Naruto," he said perplexed.

There was a loud explosion and a cloud of smoke covered the front of the classroom, "All right you punks, shut up all of you!" a voice said from within the cloud of smoke that started to dissipate revealing a tall man standing there along with several Chūnin. "I'm Morino Ibiki and will be the examiner in this exam! Now everyone walk up here and get your note and sit by the corresponding seat."

After five minutes everyone sat down at their seats and waited for further instructions from the main proctor.

"Now listen carefully because I will not repeat myself. I will now hand out the exam sheets on which there will be nine questions that you will answer, after 45 minutes I will give you a tenth question. Everyone starts out with ten points and for every wrong answer a point will be deducted from your score, also if you are caught cheating two points will be deducted from your score for every time. In the end you need to have at least five points to pass, if you however get to zero before the exam ends you will fail and then leave the room. When one in your team fails, the whole team fails. You should know this; we will watch your every move," Ibiki said, intimidating the genin with some exceptions.

"A written test!? Why did it have to be a written test?" Kai and Naruto questioned in unison, proving that the two was in the same mindset; both hated written tests.

"Begin!" Ibiki yelled at the genins, further intimidating some.

Forty-five minutes had passed and most had finished writing the exam and it was time for the final question Kai recognized as he stopped his twirling the pen with his hand. He hadn't bothered trying to answer the questions, it was far too cumbersome. That meant most likely Naruto hadn't tried either since he was even more of a slacker when it came to this stuff.

"Alright, now before the tenth question I want to ask you a question, do you want to take the tenth question?"

"What kinda question is that?" the blonde kunoichi from Suna questioned.

"Well it is pretty easy, if you wish to take it and fail you will forever be stuck with the rank of Chūnin, however if you give up you can come back again next time." Ibiki explained, "Now who of you want to take the last question?" the tension was tight, and soon hands were raised saying they gave up, it was a good ten minutes before everyone that wanted to give up had left the room. Still in the room were sixteen teams which had been around the expected number of teams. There was six from Konoha, two from Ame, two from Kusa, three from Suna, one from Oto and two from Taki.

The atmosphere was tense and filled with confusion just as a blur of purple came crashing through the window landing in front of Ibiki and the blur was revealed to be a woman clad in a open trench coat, fishnet shirt hugging her figure and a short skirt.

"I am Mitarashi Anko and I will be the proctor of the second exam, now follow me!" she loudly declared and started to walk towards the door and the genin hesitantly followed her.

After a rather long walk they stopped outside a large fenced area, Naruto estimated it to be at least five kilometers wide from the looks of it. "This is the forest of Death!" Anko said dramatically.

"Looks like another forest to me, easy piece," Naruto mumbled to his cousin and a moment later he felt a kunai graze his cheek.

"You know, it's the boastfull that usually dies first in here," Anko said to him and licked the blood trailing down his cheek from the slight wound, scaring the shit out of the others present.

"Are we going to get on with this thing or are you going to lick my cousin all day?" Kai questioned irately, not fazed by the woman's behavior.

Anko was quick to return in front of the group, "Now I want you all to fill in these consent forms so I or Konoha won't be responsible in case of your death. When everyone in your team have filled in them you can leave them there and get your scroll," she explained and pointed to a hut where two Chūnin sat. "You either receive a heaven or earth scroll and to pass this exam you will need one of each and come to the tower in the middle before the five days you will spend here are up. If you have a gravely injured or dead teammate you automatically fail the exam."

* * *

"Begin!" the voice rang through the air and the gate in front of the two was opened by the proctor. 

"We do this as quick as possible, we want to break the previous record for this right?" Kai said as he pushed off at his highest possible speed with Naruto tight on his heel.

"Yeah, he won't have the record anymore. We are aiming for less than four hours. We have ten kilometers to pass so that is half an hour meaning we have around three hours to find a team. We need a heaven scroll right?"

"Yeah, I saw that the Oto team got one so lets find them, we will take out any team we encounter." Kai said as he ran through five handseals, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" in front of the two boys was now five wolfs, "I want you too find this guy," Kai said as he pulled out a turf of white pelt looking material.

"You snatched that from the bandaged guy's clothes?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, didn't notice a thing so they will be easy prey," Kai said as the wolves scattered, "We can't be standing here for my wolfs to signal to me so lets go and search for ourselves.

The two boys had been running for half an hour when four of the five returned to them and started to lead them in the direction where the fifth had took of to, now trailing the sound team, carefully avoiding the traps they found. When they found the Oto-nin the wolves disappeared in puffs of smoke, their purpose fulfilled.

"Hn, get ready to go in quick and without mercy, you know their intents." Kai whispered to Naruto who gave him a nod.

The three Oto-nin was standing and talking about what their master just had told them, attack the Uchiha and kill him, trying to find out the best way to approach them. "I say we do it tomorrow, when they are weary from being in the woods, they are after all rookies," said the one with the white pelt on his back.

"It does sound like better than attack them now that they are still fresh," said the girl on the team.

"Yeah I con…" the third member started but was cut off as he fell to the ground with a kunai lodged deeply into his back. The two Oto-nin jumped away just in time as a barrage of kunai landed where they stood moments ago.

"Shit, someone found us already, didn't you set up traps Dosu?" the girl screeched at her team member.

"I did, they must have managed to evade them all," Dosu said in confusion, he had set out a large amount of traps yet their attackers had managed to avoid them all, "We need to figure out where they are and then counter attack." Dosu was about to jump of the branch when he felt the presence of someone between him and his teammate.

"End game," the person said before the world turned black for the two Oto-nin.

Kai and Naruto had stopped by a river where Kai cleaned of the blade of his polearm and the small at the end of it since they were both covered in blood. "Well then towards the tower," Naruto said as Kai finished cleaning the blade.

"Yeah,"

"Anko-san! Anko-san, come here quick!" one of the proctors said to the Tokubetsu Jōnin in charge of the exam.

"What is it?" came from the irate kunoichi, she was about to put another piece of dango in her mouth when he had yelled at her.

"The first team, they are inside!" the proctor said pointing towards a screen showing two genin walking around inside the building.

"Impossible… It's just two hours since we begun, they can't be ready already…" the woman said, dropping the stick of dango in her hand.

* * *

The five days spent in the tower had passed by slowly. Thus far every team from Konoha had come to the tower, however one of them was disqualified since they had two members that were unable to continue and had to be brought to the tower by Jōnin. The sibling team from Suna was the only other team that had managed to get to the tower before the time limit, when the proctors had searched the forest they had found that the remaining teams had either been killed by their fellow genin or by the wildlife. 

They were all taken to a room by Anko where the Hokage along with everyone's sensei waited for them. "Ah welcome everyone," the Hokage greeted them, "You have all passed to the final part of these examinations which will be held in a month's time at the stadium in front of daimyos and almost the entire population of Konoha. We will now hold a draw to decide the matches, however if there is anyone who wishes to withdraw, now is the time."

"I, Yakushi Kabuto wish to withdraw from these exams," the silver haired genin said.

"Very well, anyone else?" the friendly Hokage asked, "No one? Good then if you would Jiraiya…"

Jiraiya walked forward and held a bowl with several slips of paper in it. "Draw a note and inside is a number, you will see your opponent on that board as Ibiki fill it in,"

Every genin took a slip of paper and told the proctor of the first exam what number they had.

"So then, the first match will be Sabaku No Gaara against Rock Lee, second match will be Sabaku No Temari against Nara Shikamaru, third match is Uzumaki Naruto against Inuzuka Kiba, fourth match will be Akadō Yoroi against Tsurugi Misumi, fifth match will be Hyuga Hinata against Tenten, sixth match will be Yamanaka Ino against Uzumaki Kai-Wei, seventh match will be Hyuga Neji against Sabaku No Kankurō and eight match will be Akimichi Choji against Aburame Shino. This is a tournament style of matches," Ibiki explained.

"There you have your opponents, now prepare yourselves for the matches and train hard," the hokage said before he left the room, leaving the students there along with their sensei.

"So how did it go?" Jiraiya asked his two students,

"Fine, we reduced the number of sound if only a little," Kai answered back with a casual tone that scared the rookie genin to a small extent since the meaning of those words was well understood. In all truth the rookie teams had yet to make their first direct kill.

"Well your other sensei will be here in a weeks time Kai, she wants to give you some new tricks apparently so until then train this scroll with jutsu while I train Naruto okay," Jiraiya said as he gave his student a scroll.

"Well we're off to training so I guess I'll see you then," Jiraiya said before he along with Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The assembled genin watched as the dark-haired boy disappeared as well as sakura flowers started to whirl around him until he was covered with it and when they fell to the ground he was gone.

"What a troublesome team," one of the rookies said as they had left the building.


	2. Invasion

Naruto and Jiraiya had stopped in the middle of the forest just outside of Konoha where Naruto was hande a worn scroll, it was clear that the scroll had been through much but the seal on it looked as strong as when it was made. 

"You know the drill Naruto, swipe some blood on it and it will unseal," Jiraiya said with impatience, he had been looking forward to see the contents of this scroll.

Naruto bit his thumb and gently swiped his finger over the seal, unsealing the scroll. He was quick to read through the contents before he handed it to Jiraiya who also scanned over the scroll.

"Ingenious," Jiraiya said to his student as he rolled the scroll back together and handed the scroll back to its owner.

"So this jutsu make the body travel through space and time enabling its user to essentially manipulate the time itself, making time slow down for the user and yet the user isn't restriced by the timeflow thus it appears as the user moves at the same time as light to the position of these special tags seals…" Naruto said as he re read the scroll.

"From what I understand, yes,"

"And because of my build I am the only one able to use this technique…"

"That's correct, sadly I must say." Jiraiya said.

"Well then sensei, let's get started with this!" Naruto exclaimed as he sat down on the ground and took out a brush and a scroll upon which he laid down a kunai. He bit his thumb and let the brush soak up his fresh blood before he started to draw a pattern from the kunai.

"Yeah, I'll oversee the process so you don't mess up kid," Jiraiya said as he sat down on the ground in front of his student.

"So you're not going to go and peek on ladies sensei?" Naruto questioned as he finished a long line going over the tip of the kunai stretching a bit over the scroll.

"No, I'll have to make sure that this thing works out, this will put your knowledge in Fūin jutsu on a test that determines if I have taught you well enough for the next step or not."

"Hai," Naruto started to take extra care when he drew the seals on the kunai, not wanting to mess this up. He cleaned the brush using a small Suiton jutsu before he bit his now healed thumb again and let the blow once again be soaked by the brush before he started to continue drawing the seal.

* * *

Hatake Kakashi was sitting in the hospital talking with the hokage, about the situation that had appeared within the forest of death. Team seven had been attacked by Orochimaru of the sannin, he had nearly killed Sai who had been flung a great distance from the group and he had branded Sasuke with the cursed seal, the only one that had been physically unharmed was Sakura; however the doctors believed she would need some time to recuperate from the shock. 

"Well at least we have the sealed the cursed seal as long as Sasuke has the will to have it sealed," Kakashi said,

"Yes, if only the Yondaime still would have been alive, he was working on a way to have it removed from Anko-san before he passed away but he never left any notes," the sandaime said ruefully.

"I heard that Jiraiya's new team broke the record…" Kakashi said changing the subject, the death of his sensei or anything relating to it was still something he'd rather not discuss.

"Ah yes, they did. Sadly they seem to have lost all the innocence our rookies have retained. They killed the Oto team swiftly; there was almost not a single sign of combat except the kunai and bodies, no destroyed vegetation," the Sandaime was happy that a team from Konoha had managed to break the record; however the efficiency that had been displayed was a little disturbing. They had found one of the members of the Oto team lying face down on the ground with a kunai in his back. His teammembers were a mere ten meters away, one of them hanging limply over a branch in a tree with a puncture wound through her chest above the heart and the other was lying on the ground, with a broken neck and a deep gash over his chest.

"It's better to lose it as a genin rather than doing it at a B or A rank mission, not being able to kill is a setback in the profession of us Shinobi," Kakashi said seriously.

"True… but it would be nice if they had been more prone to disable the team rather than kill them,"

"I suspect they know something about the upcoming events and based on that I conclude that they did what they thought was necessary, reduce the number of Oto nin without drawing suspicion. This was the perfect opportunity for this and they took it," Kakashi said sagely. It made sense to both the Jōnin and the hokage, had they know what would come and been in the same position they would most likely done the same even if it only was genin. They possessed no real value, as a genin you did not know very much intelligence and you had no real important role in combat against higher ranking shinobi.

"Well at least we will have two of the Sannin here at the exams," the hokage said as he drew another puff on his pipe inhaling the intoxicating smoke.

"Tsunade-sama is returning?" Kakashi asked in confusion, hadn't Tsunade left the village to never come back years ago?

"It seems that Jiraiya and his students have been busy while being away, one of them actually received teachings from Tsunade for four years before he was returned to Jiraiya. They have actually convinced Tsunade to come back to the village for these exams."

"That increases our chances by a lot… having someone as renowned as Tsunade might decrease our casualties by some margin at least."

"I've wondered over something Kakashi…"

"What is it Hokage-sama?"

"Why is Sasuke's hair dyed?"

The Jōnin-sensei of team seven had no answer to that question and decided to remain silent, he himself had actually been wondering about that but since two of his students were in coma and the other in a slight shock he didn't want to ask any of them. When he first saw Sasuke's dyed hair he had burst out laughing at the sight of the mighty Uchiha with pink hair and a scowl on his face as he walked towards the Chūnin examination room. Originally he had thought about telling them that if they hadn't come all three they wouldn't be allowed inside so seeing them all present he just stepped aside and allowed them entrance before he used Shunshin.

"Well it is of a little matter considering the cursed seal Sasuke received, but his family was wondering why it was dyed," the hokage told him. "You can leave now Kakashi,"

When the Jōnin had left the room the aging hokage started to rub his temples, this was all turning into one large headache. It wasn't even five minutes later a chūnin came bursting into the office. "Hokage-sama, there is a group of Kiri-nin requesting a meeting with you, they are by the east gate and wait for your approval of letting them into the village!"

The headache he had felt was coming to him came with full force, everything this year was spiraling out of his control. "Well let them come to my office, have a group of ANBU escort them."

The chūnin had disappeared from the office and ten minutes later four Kiri-nin stood in the Hokage's office and ANBU stood in the corners of the room with two ANBU flanking the Hokage. "What is your reason for coming here?"

"We are here on the behalf of the Rokudaime Mizukage, we seek to form alliance pact with Konoha, Hokage-sama." the youngest member of the Kiri delegation said.

"So it is true then, you have a new leader in Kiri. Why is it that you seek alliance with Konoha, Kiri have stood for themselves for two decades and now you seek a treaty with us?"

"The Rokudaime is thinking of the welfare of his citizens, Kirigakure have during the two last reigns undergone an economic collapse and to counter this Mizukage-sama figured an alliance was the best way to ensure an economic recovery was building alliances, also we are in great debt to Konoha-shinobi thus Mizukage-sama decided to search for a treaty with Konoha,"

"I myself don't have the power to decide things as large as this, I will have to talk about this with the council before I can give you a verdict, something that would improve the chances for you was if Mizukage-dono would come to Konoha personally instead of sending a group of nin to do this for him in these times where we have an ongoing exam."

"We are aware of the ongoing exams in Konoha, we are also here to ask for permission for the Mizukage to attend the final parts of the Chūnin examinations,"

"I will have to return to you tomorrow after the council have heard your request and decided the best course of action, until then I will have you stay at one of the hotels here in Konoha with ANBU guard, you're not allowed to leave the hotel except in a dire situation," the aging hokage said to the leader of the Kiri-nin delegation.

The delegation from Kiri was lead through the streets of Konoha, their leader was a little solemn, it hadn't gone exactly as planned, she had hoped that they would be allowed to walk freely around Konoha.

* * *

It was right after noon that the group of the Kiri-nin was called to the Hokage's office the day after they had arrived. Sitting behind the desk was the hokage and flanking him was two other elder persons, one male and one female. 

"Good day Hokage-sama," the leader from Kiri said and bowed her head to the Hokage.

The Hokage merely nodded his head, motioning for the man standing beside him to talk. "The council of Konoha along with the Hokage have found that a alliance seem plausible, however we want a more thorough plan for the outlines of the alliance before we commit ourselves to it. This would require meeting with the Mizukage and we have found your request for his visit here during the Chūnin exams is acceptable, given that he only brings one team for his own protection."

"Thank you Hokage-sama, I have another request if I may," the leader said.

"Go on,"

"I would like to remain here in Konoha until then, that way I can outline some of the ideas Mizukage-sama have while my team return to Kirigakure."

The three elder persons in the room had a private discussion that after a few exchanges between the three was ended, "We have considered this preposition and find it plausible, however we must insist on you having a Konoha shinobi with you at all times."

"Hai, that is acceptable," the leader said.

"Was that all you had?" the woman standing beside the Hokage said.

"Hai, that was it, our mission is complete now,"

* * *

Naruto was walking down the main road of Konoha passing by the Hokage tower as he walked to his favorite restaurant when he caught a glimpse of someone he recognized. "Haku-chan!" he yelled as he ran towards the older girl who was startled as she looked around and saw the blond, "What are you doing here?" 

"I was here to propose an alliance treaty with Konoha as Mizukage-sama requested," the girl said.

"So how did it go?" Naruto asked.

"I think it all went well, the are thinking about accepting it but they want details which obviously any country want before forging their alliances. They also accepted to have Mizukage-sama coming here for the final exams, something that might help you when it all goes down right?"

"So I guess you're leaving now with your business done?"

"I have been granted the permission to stay in Konoha, but I have to have a Konoha shinobi with me at all times. You see that man with silver hair sitting in that tree, that's the one that will accompany me," Haku said and pointed at the tree to their right. Naruto could see the gravity defying hair that he recognized from the first part of the exams, it was the same man that Kai had bribed with his Icha Icha book.

"Make sure he doesn't follow you when going to the onsen, he's a pervert," Naruto whispered in the older girl's ear.

"Hey Naruto! What are you doing speaking with a beautiful girl?" came a voice in the distance that belonged to Kai, "And you said you didn't even like brunettes, you said I could take them all and here you go and start flirting with one,"

"Hello to you too Kai-san," Haku said to the boy who had stopped by the two.

"Why do you always have to be so formal Haku-chan, you're no funny," Kai wailed. 'It's always san here and san there; she's never saying just the name,'

"Don't bother Niisan, no idea trying, it's just who she is." Naruto said, "Now, I was about to eat some lunch. Do you want to join me Haku-chan, Kai-niisan?"

"Where are we eating then? If it's Ichiraku I'm out, I want Cheong Fun."

"It's Ichiraku, I don't get how you cannot resist ramen, it's the best food in the world," Naruto exclaimed.

"I'd gladly join you Naruto-kun," the older girl said.

"Why is it that you say kun to Naruto while you always use san to me?" Kai wailed to the girl looking hurt.

"Naruto is much younger than you, it wouldn't be proper to call you kun, I don't know you that well," the ever formal Haku said.

"Still I know a lot about you, like your measurements, Naruto I'm sure you wanna hear them, they are…" a flushed Naruto and a very flushed Haku stared as Kai fell to the ground in a heap due to the impact of a busty blonde's fist, Haku silently thanking Kami for having the grace to have someone knock Kai out before he revealed a secret that he somehow had managed to find out. _'I have to find out what he did to know that information,, it don't matter if I have to torture him even if we are trying to ally with this village,' _Haku noted to herself.

"Oba-chan, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked the woman who stood fuming over the delirious form of Kai, "Sensei said you wouldn't be here until six days from now,"

"I told you already, don't call me that! And I'm here because someone didn't want me to finish the tournament in a town and got us to leave one week earlier. Isn't that true Shizune?" the woman said with venom.

"Hai, but Tsunade-sama wouldn't you rather bet on the exams rather than playing it away on cards, the win rates are much higher here," a brunette said as she walked up behind the blonde woman carrying a bag with a pet pig in tow.

"Did anyone catch the mask of that ANBU?" Kai said as he shakily stood up facing his cousin. Naruto merely pointed in Kai's direction and as he turned around he saw someone he hadn't expected, "Tsunade, I didn't expect you here this soon," Kai said nervously, it had not been a smooth move to say that.

"I noticed that, it seems like Jiraiya have influenced you far more than I thought during the last year," the blonde said, "I can't understand how Naruto who have been under Jiraiya's tutelage all his life have come out without any traits from the old pervert. Where is he anyway?"

"Give it a wild shot Oba-chan, even though you may suck at gambling this one you can't guess wrong," Naruto said to the woman.

"The hot springs…" Tsunade said exasperatedly, "If he know what's best for him he better be gone from there soon and refrain from going there," the two Uzumaki was actually a little concerned for their teacher.

"Well I'm sure Ero-sennin won't be there after he know that you are in Konoha," Naruto said, "Why don't you join us, we are going to eat some lunch."

"Sure, Shizune, Kai come on, time for lunch and sake," Tsunade ordered.

The two grumpily followed, one because her master was going to drink this early on the day, the other because he had somehow ended up eating ramen, again! They both had first hand experiences not to disobey Tsunade when she was bossy, it wasn't in the best interest of their health.

* * *

Naruto had trained fervently during the one month's time, trying to master the jutsu but he could just not get it to work exactly like he wanted it to work, he could still end up a little bit off from the seal. He had also been taught a new seal that might prove to be very useful during the exams, if their information was correct. That was of little matter now that he stood in the middle of the large arena waiting for the crowd to all get settled. He gazed over to the kage booth were he could see the Hokage sitting with two of the sannin standing behind him, along with the Kazekage and the Mizukage.

* * *

Jiraiya had eyed the "Kazekage" as he along with his two guards appeared from the building. He saw the surprise in his eyes as his gaze landed on him and Tsunade standing behind their old teacher and that the Mizukage was present along with his guards. 

"Ah, Kazekage-dono," the aging Hokage greeted the man, "How nice that you could join us, I hope you're looking forward to this as much as me and Mizukage-dono are."

"Yes… I've been looking forward to this occasion…" the Kazekage said hesitantly.

"I do hope there are no interruption to these exams, it would be unpleasant to not watch the last of the matches," the Mizukage said as he directed his gaze towards the Kazekage, his eyes having a knowing look, daring the Kazekage, "Don't you too think this way too Kazekage-dono?"

"Yes, that would be rather unpleasant…"

"Well let's finish up the small talk gentlemen, I think the audience is rather impatient now and want to see the first match, I believe it is your son against one of Konoha's most promising Taijutsu users.

* * *

"I'm the proctor of these exams, I'm Hayate Gekkō. I will now give you the rules that apply during these examinations. Any techniques are allowed to be used, the fights will be one on one and won't be over until one is either unconscious, dead or have surrendered. However I can intervene if the victor is obvious or if a fight goes out of hand to avoid unnecessary deaths. Do you understand?" the examiner asked the genin assembled before him. 

The genin all nodded in affirmative, the rules were pretty simple really.

"Then would everyone please leave the arena and walk to the platform with the exception of Sabaku no Gaara and Rock Lee," the proctor said between he coughed. Some of the genin doubted that he was in any form to do anything to stop a match.

"Yosh, I'll show just how much my flames of youth burn!"

* * *

"How troublesome, fighting a girl, I think I'm going to give this match," Shikamaru said from the platform as he watched his opponent jump down on the ground. He noticed that the girl had a confident smirk on her face as she looked towards him. "Hayate-san, I'm going to forfeit this match, it's much too troublesome!" he told the proctor standing at the ground. 

"Nara Shikamaru forfeits, winner is Sabaku no Temari!" Hayate proclaimed causing loud protests to emerge from the crowd, they wanted to see all the matches considering almost all of the larger clans of Konoha had someone attending in these exams.

Temari grunted in annoyance as she walked back up to the platform. Annoyed that she hadn't gotten to fight at least someone in these exams, now she had to forfeit anyway considering that the next in the tournament would be her brother, someone who she did not want to face.

"Could Inuzuka Kiba and Uzumaki Naruto please come down here," Hayate requested.

"Heh, I won't lose to some new guy," Kiba said as he jumped down to the arena and stood before the proctor.

Up in the audience the bets were flying around, most betting on the Inuzuka knowing that he was one of the best from the new genin while his opponent was just some unknown kid. The Uzumakis hadn't even been heard of and their sensei was unknown. It was even said that the legendary sucker had betted on this boy so that meant there was even more of a reason to bet on the Inuzuka.

Naruto slowly made his way down towards his opponent. He checked that the greaves and his vambraces were all in place and contained what they were supposed to. "Hn, you wish dog-breath, you won't win this," Naruto said to his opponent as he stood in front of the proctor.

"Third match, begin!"

As soon as the words left the proctor's mouth both boys jumped backwards while flinging kunai at each other which took out themselves against the opponents projectiles. In the meantime as the projectiles collided the Inuzuka went through two techniques after he gave his dog a food pill that made his dog's fur turn red, Shikyaku no Jutsu and Jūjin Bunshin.

"Gatsūga!" the boy and his transformed dog both became rapidly spinning projectiles heading for Naruto who barely managed to avoid the two attacks.

"That's all you have Uzumaki? Next attack will take him out Akamaru," the Inuzuka said confidently as he noticed that his opponent just barely had avoided the attack. "Gatsūga!" Kiba and Akamaru was fast approaching the still airborne Naruto and the audience saw that the attack would be a certain hit on the blond boy.

Everyone watched as both dog and owner hit the blond full force sending him flying into the wall where he made a dent before falling down on the ground. "You can call this now, he won't be waking up anytime soon," Kiba said as he walked up to the unconscious form of Naruto. Just as he reached the boy he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Hn, you're to confident. You need to look out for your opponent in the future dog-breath," came Naruto's voice from behind the Inuzuka. Kiba just managed to turn his head before a fist impacted with his face sending him into the depression that had been created in the wall.

Kurenai watched in interest as her student rose from the ground, his opponent hadn't been such a nobody as she though he would be even if it was said that his team broke the record. "That will be the end for him," Kurenai said to her fellow Jōnin which sat beside her as she saw the blond use Kirigakure no jutsu, "Kiba's senses are stronger than the average human and he can smell his way through the mist. Even if this boy trained with Jiraiya-sama for the last month he won't be able to defeat Kiba."

"We'll see, I still believe you guys will owe me some money after this," Kakashi said confidently as the mist was thickening. Soon it became too thick to be able to see through, becoming a white cover over the arena grounds.

From within the thick mist Kiba was trying to localize the position of his opponent but is having no luck in doing so, in fact he couldn't smell a single thing and the mist was somehow blocking all sound from the audience and anything within it making it impossible to hear where Naruto was. He felt several small objects sink into his back before his vision started to become blurry as the mist was clearing up.

When the mist was gone it revealed Naruto standing on behind the lying form of Kiba who had his back covered with senbon needles.

Hayate walked up to the still form of Kiba and checked on the boy, he was alive but unconscious. He noted that the senbon needles had hit pressure points that disabled his muscles and one that put him in an unconscious state. "Winner, Uzumaki Naruto!"

Grumpily the Jōnin handed Kakashi the money that they had lost to the copy-nin as they watched the Inuzuka being carried to the medic room.

* * *

"The fourth match between Akadō Yoroi and Tsurugi Misumi is unfortunately canceled due to injuries they both have received during the training month so would the combatants of the fifth match, Hyuga Hinata and Tenten please come down here. 

The two kunoichi walked down and stood before the proctor waiting, "Fifth match, begin!"

The brunette was quick to jump back and get some distance between herself and her opponent since she knew about the blue haired girl's family techniques, having one of the clan's members on her team even if he was from the branch family.

"I will win this Hinata, your techniques are not worth anything for ranged combat," the brunette said as she threw a couple of kunai that the blue haired girl gracefully dodged.

Hinata was hard pressed on the defensive from the start, Tenten seemed to have an endless supply of kunai from her scrolls and just kept flinging them at Hinata. When she felt the edge of a kunai to her neck she knew that she had lost. "I give up,"

"Winner, Tenten!"

As Hinata walked up into the stadium and sat by her family her father gave her a condescending glare.

* * *

"Sixth match, Yamanaka Ino, Uzumaki Kai-Wei. Begin!" 

Ino jumped back to get some distance between herself and her opponent but as she landed she was harshly knocked into the ground courtesy of her opponent's polearm and she now had the sharp end of the weapon pointed towards her face, pricking her cheek drawing a small amount of blood.

"Do you yield Yamanaka-san?" Kai asked her as he stood above her.

The audience noted that what looked like feathers had started to fall down and that their eye lids started to feel heavy. Several of the shinobi in the audience was quick do dispel the technique but as soon as they did this large portions of the audience was revealed to be hiding Oto and Suna nin who started to take on the Konoha nin that had dispelled the genjutsu.

* * *

"So Orochimaru, you decided to make your move now," the Hokage said to the Kazekage as he saw the audience fall asleep and that the two guards in fact was four persons that now had set up a barrier around the kage booth. 

"I want to know just how you knew this, you seem very prepared for this, Sarutobi-sensei," the Kazekage said as he took of his robes and revealed himself to be a nearly white skinned man with yellow snake looking eyes.

"That would be thanks to me, you know next time when you're betraying a kage make sure that he is dead before you leave. You never know when someone well versed in medical jutsu pass by," Jiraiya said, "the Kazekage was very generous with information and your village makes way to much sound not to be noticed by information networks."

"It doesn't matter if you have the Kazekage, they are following me anyway since they do not know I was pretending to be their kage. Your preparations will all have been in vain, I will destroy Konoha today and I have a jinchūriki to help me in doing so. Not even two of the sannin can compete with the power I'm going to unleash today." The man named Orochimaru said confidently.

"If you're talking about that Gaara kid, we've already made preparations for your jinchūriki. He won't be able to do anything more than what a usual genin can after we're done with him," Jiraiya said.

"I think we should end this chit-chat and get the reunion party going," Tsunade said as she rushed at Orochimaru who narrowly dodged her fist that destroyed a good portion of the roof on which they stood.

"You know, it's not very nice to forget a fellow Kage," a man said as he joined the group standing beside the Hokage.

"I'm sorry Mizukage-dono, would you like to join us?" the Hokage asked his new friend.

"With pleasure,"

* * *

"Sabaku no Gaara, Sabaku no Kankurō and Sabaku no Temari, we order you to stop now or we will take to violent means to do so," Naruto said as he jumped after the siblings over the rooftops of Konoha. 

"No way that we are stopping for a kid like you," Kankurō said to the boy.

"Then stop for me instead," came the monotone voice of Kai in front of the group. The siblings all saw Kai coming towards them using his polearm as a ram to knock them all down which they all avoided easily.

"You'll have to do better than that," Kankurō said confidently to Kai as he stopped, only to poof into a cloud of smoke. That was the last thing Kankurō saw before his vision turned black.

"Hn, better than that, look underneath the obvious boy, who would attack in such up front manner without a plan. Naruto, take out the girl and use the paper sensei gave you on the boy." Kai said as he stood over the unconscious form of Kankurō who he started to tie up with wire while he saw Naruto disappear into the forest that they just reached.

Naruto was having problem with his mission objectives, taking out the Suna siblings without mortally wounding them. '_Why did niisan get the easy job?'_ he silently questioned as he continued to follow the Suna jinchūriki and his sister.

* * *

Kai was returning towards the arena when he saw several large snakes crash through the outer walls of Konoha. '_It is at times like these that I wish that I had the toad contract and not wolves, the wolves are way much smaller than the toads, they can't even do much damage to these snakes,'_ Kai though to himself as he changed direction to where the snakes entered the village.

* * *

The two kages and the two sannin still faithful to Konoha was hardpressed as they fought the last of the sannin. The first few minutes of the fight had quickly been in their advantage but when Orochimaru performed "Edo-Tensei" and summoned the founders of Konoha which had ruled the village together, the Shodaime Hokage and Nidaime Hokage. He had been summoning a third person but was interrupted before it even broke ground, much to the relief of the present Konoha-nin if their assumption had been correct they would have been in trouble if he had managed the third summon. They had all split up, the sandaime hokage taking on Orochimaru, the Rokudaime Mizukage took the Nidaime Hokage and Jiraiya and Tsunade fought the Shodaime Hokage. 

"You won't get away with this Orochimaru!" Sarutobi said as he hit his student hard over his ribs with the transformed Enma. The Hebi-sannin looked beyond the sandaime and saw that both of his summons were at their limits and would soon be taken out. Before Sarutobi managed to land another hit to the sannin he made a hand sign to the four shinobi holding up the barrier that prevented Konoha shinobi from interfering with the fight to drop it. They were retreating.

Sarutobi watched as his student along with any remaining Oto nin fled the arena, leaving their Suna allies with the Konoha shinobi that now were in an advantageous position in numbers. Most of the Suna nin was now surrendering to the Konoha nin, the fight being meaningless. Jiraiya was about to jump after the Hebi-sannin but was stopped by the sandaime. "There's no need to chase after him, he will only get away again. To be rid of him we must corner him,"

"Well Hokage-dono, we must to this again, I must say this was most entertaining," the Mizukage snickered as he cleaned of his large sword and put it back on his back.

Sarutobi was just about to reply when the battered form of one Uzumaki Naruto appeared carrying Suna's jinchūriki over his left shoulder and the jinchūriki's sister under his right arm.

"Mission to retrieve and seal Suna's jinchūriki was a success sensei, I also managed to capture his sister and niisan took the brother," Naruto told Jiraiya.

"Where is Kai then?" Jiraiya questioned, usually the two of them came together.

"I'm here," came a voice from behind the group of high level ninja. Standing there was Kai, covered in blood and some yellowish slime.

"What happened to you niisan?" Naruto asked his cousin.

"A snake happened to me, that's what happened. The damn creature swallowed me in one piece, I think he learned not to swallow me anymore at least. The Hebi baka was introduced to Sei-chan and Sei-chan made the process short with the Hebi baka."

"Still don't get why you say Sei-chan to your weapon, it is the goddamn Seiryutou, not some living entity," Jiraiya said.

"It's because he's in love with his weapon, if he could he would probably marry it," Naruto said without emotion, making everyone but Kai laugh despite the serious situation still being resolved around them.

"Shut up Naruto," Kai said between gritting teeth.

* * *

The damages to the village had, considering an invasion by two villages, been minimal. Konoha had still lost ninety-seven shinobi that were either killed or unable to continue service as shinobi even after the miracle worker Tsunade had treated them. That was a decrease of Konoha's forces by nearly ten percent. They had killed or captured nearly two hundred Suna-nin most of them being and the Oto-nin had taken a more severe beating than their Suna companions with three hundred killed or captured shinobi, the captured being far less than the killed. 

The sandaime Hokage massaged his temple as he reviewed the papers about the invasion now five days after the attempted invasion took place. This was turning out to be far more work than he anticipated when Jiraiya told him of these events. In addition to this the council demanded that Suna give up some of their techniques to Konoha as amendment to the broken treaty, there was also the matter of the intervillage marriage, something the council had demanded. It had in the past been customary that when negotiating peace that one person from the country in the disadvantage on the negotiation table sent one person to the victorious land to marry someone of their choice. The marriage was often of political weight and such had the old peace treaty been as well. However in the old treaty it hadn't been a marriage that was to be done immediately but rather it had been arranged for the future.

"So you're saying that Suna will have give up the Yondaime Kazekage's daughter and the council wishes to marry her to Uchiha Sasuke?" Jiraiya questioned the old man.

"Yes, it would seem that way. They received the reports thirteen years ago that her intended future husband then had died in the Kyubi attack,"

"Well I don't think he will be to happy if we marry his daughter to Uchiha Sasuke as they would like in the council,"

"Indeed, then who would you suggest Jiraiya?"

"Naruto, it would play out well without raising any suspicion. He's an unknown nin that excelled in the Chūnin exams. It would also be the right thing to do,"

"True my student, how do you think Naruto will react to this?"

"Yell and complain loudly but when I've explained I think he will understand, I had hoped on this not happening until he was fifteen,"

"Please explain everything to your friend as well; he does deserve to know the truth. However his home cannot know of this,"

"Hai Hokage-sama," the white haired sannin disappeared using Shinshin.

"I'm getting all too old for this," the old man said as he took a deep breath, "Godaime where are you?"

* * *

"They've done what Jiraiya!?" the Yondaime Kazekage asked incredulously from the bed as he sat up before lying down wincing in pain. 

"You shouldn't move that much, even if it is three months since we found you you're still weak. The Kusanagi sword cut has slowed the healing by a lot, and you were nearly dead when we found you," Kai said, ignoring what he had heard just now, saving it for later, "Though it seems like the effects finally are disappearing and that the last of the open wounds are closing, " Kai said.

"Those damn coots in the council, it would be much easier if the council didn't exist. They are a source of great pain in the back and much of the paperwork, and now they have given away my daughter's hand in marriage," the Kazekage ranted.

"I still don't get why no Kage seems to be using a bunshin to do the paperwork for them, they are supposed to be the most powerful and smartest people in their village," Kai said offhandly.

The Kazekage gave him an incredulous look as he said this, "That's… brilliant!" the Kazekage said, "Why haven't I thought of that?"

"Ahum, I believe the subject was the betrothal of your daughter," Jiraiya said, "I may add that this is actually more of a renewal of the old treaty, the married couple will be the same as then,"

The Kazekage stared at the white haired sannin curiously, "But we got reports of him dying before he was born during the attack,"

"Those were false, after the loss of Arashi the boy needed protection and it was given under my tutelage, in fact you have been living with him for the past three months."

"Don't tell me…" the Kazekage said and pointed to the darkhaired boy standing beside the bed he was in, "He's the one, I don't want my daughter to be married to a pervert, treaty or no treaty."

"Hey, what do you mean pervert? I'm not a pervert; I just have certain interests when it concerns girls. Besides blondes aren't my type, they are too feisty." Kai defended while he looked around just to be safe, if he said that in the presence of Tsunade he would be flying at the wall any moment now.

"No, the other one, the clueless boy," Jiraiya said. _'Not good research material, would've been better with Kai, besides Naruto is just too young, at least Kai is capable to do something that is worthy of writing down,'_

"Well that I can accept and since he apparently is the heir of that clan I can accept it," the Kazekage said as he laid back, "Will you hurry up and change those bandages!"

* * *

Naruto was having a bad day, no bad day wasn't words to describe it, he was having the most horrible day in his whole life. It all started around noon when he was supposed to eat lunch at Ichiraku when he found out that his beloved wallet, Gama-chan, was empty due the activities of a certain cousin. Now coming back to Jiraiya's house something that topped having no money for ramen was revealed. 

"Naruto, you may not like this but it has been arranged that you are to marry the daughter of the Kazekage," Jiraiya said.

Naruto's only response was silence as he stood there for five minutes his mouth moving like that of a fish while his brain was still processing the information. After analyzing, archiving and reaching a logical response, Naruto's brain decided to follow the course of action it had found most suitable, shut down all functions until such a time when this was over.

Now Jiraiya had expected loud protests from Naruto, Naruto fainting hadn't been on top of the expected things for the blond ninja to do, hell it hadn't even been considered a possibility. When Kai came from upstairs to find Naruto lying unconscious on the floor he broke out laughing at the sight of Jiraiya staring blankly at the unconscious blond on the floor.

"A wild guess… He didn't take it too well?" Kai said between laughs.

"Well, not that well. For him to faint is… unusual,"

"Hn, well I know just the thing," Kai said as he walked up to the blond.

"Itai!" Naruto woke up from the blissfull form of unconsciousness as he felt something hit his shin hardly even if the greaves he wore lessened the impact of whatever it was. As he looked around feeling pretty dizzy he saw Jiraiya standing there laughing and pointing to his cousin who was sitting on the floor cursing and holding his right foot.

Kai saw that, even though it hadn't worked out as he thought it would, Naruto was awake, "Why the hell are you wearing the greaves, weren't you just going for lunch?" Kai asked his cousin as he rubbed his injured foot.

"Because… I don't know, I'm just wearing them," Naruto said still in a daze, not remembering why he was on the floor… _'What was it…? It was something Ero-sennin said. Ah, now I remember!'_ with sudden reveleation everything that happened ten minutes ago came rushing back to Naruto.

"Ah, Ero-sennin what do you mean that I've been promised to marry someone from Suna!" Naruto said angrily.

Jiraiya was relieved that Naruto had returned to his usual behaviour even if he didn't like it at all. He had even returned to using 'Ero-sennin', something Jiraiya thought he had gotten rid off from his two students.

"Well Naruto, you see… There's this matter that the council wants to see some proof to Suna's goodwill, like marrying of someone of political importance to a Konoha-nin," Jiraiya said hesitantly, "Seeing your heritage Sarutobi and I deemed you to be the best choice,"

"Why me, why not Kai-oniisan?" Naruto questioned.

"I don't like blondes," Kai deadpanned.

"How do you know she's a blonde? And who said I like blondes?"

"It's the daughter of the Kazekage, of course I know who it is, she was the one you came carrying with along with the holder of Shukaku, don't try to deny that you your hand was where it was by purpose, not something about it was the only way to carry her. No-one else might've noticed it but I saw you cop a feel every now and then while we were conversing in the arena."

Naruto stood there sputtering, trying to come up with some remark against his cousin but just couldn't find any words as his face turned to the color of a ripe tomato. All he could do was watch as Jiraiya took out his famous, or infamous depending on ones view of his way of earning his living, writing block quickly scribbling away.


	3. Meetings

"So that's the latest?" a hushed voice asked, sounding through the thick darkness.

"They won't be moving for a while, I guess you'll have approximately two to three years to prepare and find his body, yes that's the latest. Are you sure that you can go through with the plan at that time, if your ties are too strong it might become a problem,"

"Yes, I'm sure I can do it," the first person answered.

"Well that's good news, why did that baka have to hide the body so damn well," a third voice said, referring to the second person's statement.

"Probably so no one could steal," the second voice said before it was interrupted by a knock on the front door. "Drop the jutsus, no point anymore; it's the kage that's here. The main intelligence was given to you anyway and we covered our plan so you know what's planned for the future."

* * *

"So, the marriage is planned to be in a few weeks, how does it feel?" Kai asked as he took a sip of the liquid within the saucer he held. 

"Not good, I'm far too young to be married! And I have this nasty feeling in my gut,"

"Here, just have some sake, it'll help you," Kai offered his cousin the jug from which he just poured some more of the clear liquid onto his saucer.

"No thanks, it will just cloud my thoughts and dull my senses. I can't understand why you are drinking it, for one you're underage and secondly it will dull your senses, what if you become drunk and you need to defend yourself, or on an intelligence mission where you slip and say something than endanger the whole thing?" Naruto accused.

"Spot on Naruto, what if that would happen? That's no good, therefore I need to get used to have alcohol in my body, how I move with it coursing through my veins, how to resist to say stupid things while inebriated, that's what this is about. I'm conditioning my body to alcohol, the more experience you have with it the less of a poison it becomes to the body as it slowly accustoms. In other words, this is training. If I can outlast my enemy in drinking there is no telling how much he may accidentally tell me, instead of the opposite. Drinking is a time when people bond and tell stories, sometimes very valuable stories." Kai explained to his cousin while occasionally taking a sip from the saucer and pouring himself another one.

Naruto huffed as he stared at his cousin as he drank of his water, drinking wasn't something Naruto had in his future plans to start taking up. Thinking about it Naruto thought about how lucky he was that only got a minor perverseness from being around Jiraiya for the majority of his life. Kai had seemingly adopted several of his teachers' bad habits. _'Luckily niisan isn't writing perverted books… yet' _Naruto thought as he eyed the orange book visible through his cousin's kunai holster fastened to the right thigh.

In an unexpected action Kai jumped from his seat, throwing himself in a direction straight behind him, "Haku-chan!"

Naruto turned around and saw Haku just a few yards away, smoothly sidestepping his cousin. _'How could he sense her?'_ Naruto questioned as he counted the bottles on the counter by Kai's seat, five in total, _'not even I sensed her,'_

"Hello Haku-chan," Naruto greeted the girl cheerily, hiding his morose mood.

"Hello Naruto-kun, Kai-san," the Kiri kunoichi greeted as she sat down on Kai's seat.

"Haku-chan, how mean," Kai wailed as he stood up from the ground, dusting off himself. To his dismay he was pointedly ignored by the girl as she conversed happily with his cousin. Seeing this he made quick retreat outside the stand. _'Hehe, now Naruto will have to pay for the sake,'_

* * *

"Jiraiya, Tsunade," the Sandaime acknowledged as he watched his old students step through the door to his office. "As you both know I'm old now, far too old to be sitting in my current position," 

The two members of the sannin knew where this was heading, not in the direction they would like it to go. Soon he would ask any of them to take his seat as hokage.

"It is high time that I chose a successor, but until now I haven't been able to find a suitable one within the borders of Konoha," the Hokage continued.

"I'm sorry Sarutobi-sensei but I can't be Hokage, that's too much responsibility, besides I'm out of my prime," Jiraiya said, "Can't you take Yondaime's student, that Kakashi brat as the Godaime?"

"No, even if he have some of the prerequisites that's needed to become the Hokage he just doesn't have the spirit to be one," the Hokage stated _'also he's constantly late,'_

"It'll have to be one of you; I know that you as well are past your primes; however your still strong and most importantly you're well-known throughout the lands."

"Sensei, I can also not accept your offer, the burden of a Hokage is too much and I've lost too many because of that cursed title," Tsunade said as she pointed to the hat that the Sandaime wore.

"Please, I only ask for this because of the welfare of this village, you will only be a temporary kage while the true successor fulfills his training to a level where he can wear the burden of the hat," the Sandaime pleaded.

"So who is the one, you have in mind?" Jiraiya asked, suddenly interested, already partly knowing who the Hokage thought to fill his place.

After a lengthy explanation and some chocking revelations from the Sandaime, Tsunade and Jiraiya understood his reasoning. Reluctantly Tsunade accepted that she would take the position of Hokage while the chosen successor still trained. In just two days she would be announced as the Godaime Hokage of Konoha.

A shocked Jiraiya left the Hokage's office, the news of the need of a Godaime wasn't surprising; actually Konoha had been in need of a Godaime ever since the Yondaime sacrificed himself. It was the other information that the Sandaime gave him that surprised him. _'It seems that he still has some tricks up his sleeve, I didn't know he knew about our special mission.'_ Jiraiya said to himself as he made his way down the stairs. _'But Tsunade as the Hokage, who would've thought that, must be something special if she agreed, albeit reluctantly, to take the hat.'_

* * *

"Four dragons, spawned out the spiral. The noble white dragon will walk down a road in the shadows, its ambition plunging the world into darkness, the trusted golden dragon will betray the trust it has received, mortally betraying the one who trusts it. The raging red dragon has the power to rule the world, driven y demonic power, strengthening him. The green tranquil dragon can calm them all, bringing an era of peace unless its darkness sets it claws firmly within it, devouring all dragons," the man recited from the aged scroll held in his hands_. 'The "Uzumaki" cousins have revealed themselves, but who is the fourth dragon?'_ he mused in the darkness, his red eyes scrutinizing the text, as if a lead would jump out from it.

* * *

A group of twenty persons, male and female walked through the great gates of Konoha, quickly gaining the attention of the villagers that they passed by. Not only was it because the group was, with only one exception, only old people, no it was of the Hitai-ate they wore, adorning the symbol of Sunagakure. 

"Temari-san, we expect you to honor all the requests that either the council of Konoha has or the requests of your future husband. You should know that this is vital for future peace between our nations," one of the women in the group said to the only young person with them, a girl who appeared to be in her mid-teens with sandy-blonde hair put in four pigtails.

"Yes elder," the girl said, her voice a dead monotone.

The older woman was about to continue when a yellow and blue blur passed by in front of them, standing still for only a second before he jumped away again. Just a moment after the boy left the ground another boy appeared, his left fist deep in the earth on the spot where the blond boy stood, his right hand holding a long staff with one end covered in a bag.

"Damn, I missed," the dark haired boy muttered just loud enough for the Suna-nin to register what he said, a second later he was gone from their sight.

"That was most… unusual," one of the males of the Suna group said as he looked into the direction where the two boys had disappeared. A sudden rumbling stopped all replies as the ground in front of them started to violently shake, only to explode in all directions, sending earth covering the group from Suna and leaving a deep crater in the road.

* * *

"Hokage-same, I've discovered something that you should take part of before what the councils have decided shall take place in a few months actually takes place," Kai said to the Hokage as he bowed before the older man. 

"What is this information you speak of Uzumaki-san?"

"My cousin's clan laws," Kai said.

"What about them?" the Hokage asked. Silence was his answer as he was handed an aged scroll. Carefully he unfolded it and started to read through it. After several silent minutes he found what the boy sitting in front of him talked about. "I understand Kai-kun, but this will take some drastic measures,"

"I understand, but I think it would be for the best anyway. However I cannot allow him to be the only one to take up the seat," Kai said, "That was all Hokage-sama, I trust you will make the best decision in this matter as this is fully in your hands,"

The Sandaime silently puffed on his pipe, _'Just what game are you playing Kai? What are your reasons?'_

* * *

The council of Konoha stared at their Suna counterpart with a look of distaste; they had expected the Suna council to at least show up cleaned for this important meeting. After all this concerned the fate of Suna post their latest conflict. But now standing before them was a council that was covered in dirt. 

"So what is the reason why you show up here dirty?" the woman sitting on the Hokage's left side questioned the council.

"Actually that could be explained by me," a voice said coming from the windowsill above the Hokage. Standing there was the same boy that had appeared in front of the Suna group just a few minutes ago. The boy jumped down from the window, dragging the body of an unconscious blond with his left hand while holding the staff they had seen earlier in his right hand.

"Then explain Uzumaki," the man on the Hokage's right ordered.

The boy clenched his teeth and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly before he spoke, "I was shaking my cousin who attempted to escape, it tried to knock him out since he was standing still at the moment and was seemingly unaware of my proximity. I tried to exploit this, however he managed to notice me at the last moment thus I missed as he escaped. I'm sorry for sending the road flying at you, but my cousin's escape was essential to prevent for this meeting to take place."

"You're excused Uzumaki-san, you can leave your cousin with us," the man said. A second later the boy was gone in a swirl of sakura petals.

"This seems to be a suitable match, don't you think Hokage-sama, if it turns out that she was sent here to assassinate her husband then it won't be any major loss. Considering that their Kazekage is still missing she holds no political value so she can be used as an example then," the woman on the Sandaime's left whispered to the Sandaime. The Sandaime's face contorted in disgust at the morbid idea for less than a second but he quickly adopted a neutral face. The Hokage looked at the girl and he saw how she anxiously moved her legs and arms and the fear in her eyes. What the man had described wasn't something unusual, it had happened more than the amount of successful arrangements. Sometimes the new arrival was publicly executed even before he or she was married, just to announce how much stronger a village was.

Naruto started to regain his consciousness and saw that he was within the council chambers, lying on the floor. _'So he managed to get me then,'_ he concluded. He heard a discussion, something about a tribute to Konoha, for the damage made to the village and its inhabitants.

As soon as he heard the discussion end he heard the Hokage's clear voice cut through the chamber, "Then who is for this agreement and thus the marriage of Uzumaki Naruto and Sabaku no Temari?" there was a moments pause before he spoke again, "No one disagrees?" he heard the Hokage question, "Then I declare it is decided, in three weeks time the wedding shall take place here in Konoha."

Low murmurs was all Naruto heard as the sounds of feet walking on the floor in the direction of the exit. As he say up Naruto noticed that he and the Hokage was now alone in the chambers. He watched in silence as the Hokage walked to the opened doors and took hold of them, closing them. After they were closed Naruto watched as the Sandaime applied a seal that would stop any sound to leave the chambers.

"You should know that your cousin have found a way for you, Uzumaki Naruto, to be excused from marrying the girl," the Sandaime said as he walked towards the smaller row in the council chamber which Naruto recalled as always being empty when he observed the council meetings from his hiding place, the layer of dust upon the row was a proof of that it had been unused for a long time.

"You mean I don't have to get married to this girl?" Naruto asked brashly.

"Namikaze-kun, this row bears great significance for the council of Konoha, unknown to many the ones who sat here were the true rulers of the council, they were the ones to support the Hokage in almost any matter for the greater good of Konoha. They were the shadows of the Hokage, trusted to protect him in his times of need. I believe you know what I speak of." The Sandaime continued, ignoring the blond's earlier question..

Naruto just nodded at the Hokage, "Did you just call me Namikaze, Hokage-sama?"

"Indeed Naruto-kun," the Sandaime said while he lit his pipe and took a long breath from it, savoring the taste. "My will is that you take the seat as the Namikaze clan leader for the next meeting, something that's scheduled tomorrow afternoon. You will no longer have the protection of having the name of your mother, and by default your cousin will lose this as well, but I think that you would prefer avoiding the marriage. However before I can allow you to take the seat of your clan within these chambers you and your cousin must pass a test; if you fail you will be married as it was decided by the council today."

"Why does Kai-oniisan have to take the test as well?"

"As I said, this matter involves him as well, if you are revealed, then he is to be revealed, otherwise it will be too suspicious. Be at training ground seven at dawn tomorrow, there you will be tested if you are worthy, I look forward to it," the Hokage said as he walked out of the chamber, leaving Naruto alone within the room, or at least Naruto thought so.

"So, are you going to accept his offer?" came the voice of his cousin, surprising him.

"Oniisan? How did you get here without the Hokage noticing?" Naruto questioned.

"I didn't get here without him noticing, he knew I was here all along,"

* * *

"Naruto, Kai," the Hokage acknowledged the two boys that stood before him in the crisp morning air of Konoha. "Your test will be that of combat, if you can manage to beat one of our most elite Jōnin you will receive the rank of Jōnin," 

"So who are we going to beat?" Naruto asked confidently.

"He should be here any moment now, I told him to be here two hours ago." As if it had been a cue a cloud of smoke erupted beside the Hokage, dissipating quickly revealing a rather tall man with spiky silver hair, his hitai-are covering his left eye.

"Yo," the man greeted the boys and the Hokage, "These are the brats that I should show up Hokage-sama?" he questioned upon seeing the boys. From his assessment they were still at the same level as when he had seen them at the exams, the blond seemed to be a high chūnin while the older boy seemed to be high genin, though illogical seeing the clear age difference that was between them. But as he himself having been far better than his peers at that age Kakashi shrugged it off, at the age of the blond boy he had already become Jōnin.

"We'll see about that 'Copy ninja', do not misjudge us," Kai said, his voice a deep monotone. The Hokage stood in the background observing the word exchange, Kakashi didn't know about the role the two boys had played during the invasion, only he, the Mizukage and the Sannin knew of their involvement in the battle.

"Hatake Kakashi, are you ready?" the Hokage questioned, interrupting any further discussion. Seeing a nod he continued, "Naruto and Kai, are you ready?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the replied in unison.

"Then begin!" as he said that the Hokage jumped back, landing beside his two old students as they stood in on of the trees overlooking the training grounds. "You will be their judge as well; if they fail then everything will proceed as the council has planned it.

The two boys both took a quick jump backwards while they put their hands in the ram seal and started to focus their chakra to six points. As soon as the chakra had assembled there it felt as a great weight was lifted of them as chakra started to course through their bodies, enough for the spectators to see a faint layer of chakra cover them for an instant before it receded.

As Kakashi watched the two boys who now had an alarming amount of chakra at their disposal, even more chakra than he himself had, he realized that he would probably need to take them seriously. He moved his hand to his Hitai-ate and lifted it, revealing his crimson eye with three tomoes. "I guess… you're not as weak as I thought you to be," he admitted to them.

"Hehe, correct copy ninja," Naruto said as he gave out a chuckle, "So let's start then,"

The blond started with a low kick, aiming to knock Kakashi of balance but the Jōnin easily avoided the strike and had to use a kunai to block the blade of the Guan Dao wielded by Kai, for a moment Kakashi thought the kunai would actually shatter because of the force behind the naginata like weapon.

Using this time the Jōnin quickly ran through several handseals in rapid succession. "Katon: Gōkakyu no Jutsu!" Kakashi watched as the giant fireball closed in on the two when the older of the boys ran through handseals at a tempo that nearly matched his own, "Suiton: Suiryū no Jutsu!"

The fire extinguished by the water, leaving a thin layer of mist in the training ground. Kakashi noticed that the mist was thickening much more than it was supposed to do from such low rank jutsus. _'Where are they, I can't see them in this thick mist,' a_ low rumbling, almost unnoticeable, however alerted him. A quick jump was what saved him from being dragged into the earth. Before he had a chance to send his own attack on the blond that sprouted from the ground he was once again forced to block another swing from Kai, this time however he was prepared. He was starting to see the pattern that they were operating after. With a thrust of equal power to block the blade he managed to wrangle the weapon out of Kai's grasp, sending it flying into the thick mist. _'My time to attack,'_

Kai watched as his primary weapon was flung into the mist, the hushed sound of it hitting the waters surface could be heard. He didn't have time to think more about it as the copy ninja slashed with his kunai, Kai narrowly dodging the attack. Next time Kakashi made a horizontal cut, this time the attack made contact with him, cutting through the fabric of Kai's clothing and making a wound across his chest. Kai grunted as the stinging feeling of the weapon piercing his skin traveled to his brain as he continued to narrowly dodge the onslaught of attacks, every dodge taking him to his limit while he received shallow cuts whenever he couldn't get enough distance between himself and Kakashi. It wasn't until what seemed like an eternity for Kai that the onslaught stopped when several shuriken flew in-between Kakashi and Kai.

Naruto watched as Kakashi momentarily stopped, "Fūton: Daitoppa!" directly after sending away his jutsu which cleared the mist in his way Naruto ran towards his cousin and made a hand flip over his cousin's back while he in the process drew the Kodachi strapped to Kai's back.

Kakashi avoided the jutsu with ease and found himself holding Naruto's blade at hold. In the corner of his eye his sharingan registered a jutsu sequence unfamiliar to him. He watched as Naruto smirked at him as Kai stopped the seal sequence. "Magen: Tsuikai"

* * *

Kakashi watched as he stood in the middle of Konoha, a Konoha that he wished he never had seen. The streets were deserted, the houses empty. The red orange sky having an ominous feeling to it, the reason to its color wasn't the sunset, no it was in the middle of the night, and the reason was the burning village. Hushed screams of agony could be heard from a distance. 

"So this is Konoha?" Kakashi heard a voice question from his right. His immediate reaction was to slash at the boy but he found that he no longer held his kunai and that his fist just went through the boy who seemed to be made out of a mist. "I'm not even corporeal here, so you can't touch me, much less hurt me."

Kakashi opted to stare out over the raging inferno that was his village, ignoring the boy.

"Look, there are you," Kai said and pointed to a boy who ran out of the Hokage tower. Kakashi recalled this as if it had been yesterday. He was running after his last teammate as she was trying to get to the Yondaime and get him to change his mind about his 'brilliant' plan. Kakashi decided to follow his younger self as he ran in the direction of the agonized screams. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Kai following, just floating through the air without actually moving.

Kai noticed as they traveled that the terrain looked like a fiery hurricane had swept through the lands, turning over trees and igniting them. The closer they got to what seemed to be the center of the all he also saw it was more common with dead or dying shinobi of Konoha with a few medic-nins jumping from place to place helping those they could, which was only a handful.

In the distance Kai saw something large orange moving _'Kyuubi no Kitsune'_ he marveled at the sight. The mighties of all the tailed beasts was moving in front of him, and he was going to witness its defeat at the hands of the Yondaime. As he saw something large appear from a plume of smoke he noticed that the young Kakashi increased his speed to what Kai suspected was his highest speed at that age.

The younger Kakashi and his followers came to a stop in the clearing in which the Kyuubi stood facing the large toad summon boss, Gamabunta. Standing proudly atop the toad was the Yondaime Hokage. To Kakashi it looked like the Yondaime and Kyuubi did nothing but stare at each other, however he knew better. The two was locked in mortal battle on a spirit plane.

Kai watched in amazement as he saw that standing behind the Yondaime was a great, sinister figure standing with his arm straight through the Hokage's chest. The hand of the figure was grasping a non-corporeal form of the giant fox and was slowly dragging it closer to the chest of the Hokage. Kai watched as the spirit of the Kitsune struggled against the pulling and occasionally managed to make its way towards its body, only lose twice the distance to the pull a moment later. Kai watched as the first tail belonging to the fox was pulled into the Hokage, the second tail soon following, it took another five minutes but now Kai could only see the head of the Kyuubi being outside the Yondaime. Just then Kai noticed how a girl of similar age of the younger Kakashi made her way over the back of the toad boss summon. He noted that he wasn't the only one to notice this, the younger Kakashi had done it as well and the Kakashi of the present had already been looking in that direction, faint signs of tears threatening to make themselves known present in his eyes.

Kakashi watched as his younger self desperately jumped towards Gamabunta and to stop the girl from reaching his sensei. He felt tears flowing from his eyes now as he watched his younger self slip over the corpse of a Konoha shinobi and fall to the ground, spraining his ankle in the process, unable to continue running the now limping young Kakashi witnesses as he girl reached the Yondaime and only a moment later she and the Yondaime both fell onto the head of the summon in a heap. The summon cautiously put them both down on the ground and just as the young Kakashi reached the spot the summon disappeared. Lying before him was the two last members of his team, neither of them moving.

"Amazing, truly amazing," was all Kai was able to say as he watched the shinigami disappear into the air. "I have to tell the Hokage this,"

"I've failed them," Kakashi said in tandem with his younger self, only now Kai noticed that the two of them was now doing exactly the same actions

'_I think this is enough, no need to make him relieve it all too much,'_Kai thought as he moved his hands into a special hand seal while he muttered "Kai,"

* * *

The Sandaime, Jiraiya and Tsunade all looked in bewilderment as one moment Kakashi stood there holding of an attack from Naruto only to a second later lay down on the ground in a heap clutching his head, and a moment later they saw Kai's body fall to the ground soundlessly. 

The three observers were soon standing at their sides, Tsunade quickly using a jutsu to get a diagnosis on them.

"So what happened to them?"

"They both seem to be under the effect of a heavy mental trauma, Kakashi being the one in worst condition," Tsunade said, "Though there is no danger to their person it seems like they've take a mental strain as an effect of the jutsu used by the gaki."

"So oniisan's jutsu backfired on him then," Naruto asked somberly as he looked from his cousin to the Jōnin they had been fighting against.

"We better take them to the hospital and get them some under some surveillance, I can't really say when they wake up, this is something that hangs only upon them, they're both unconscious. I don't know what purpose the jutsu had but it seems to have been something major," Tsunade said urgently.

Jiraiya was quick to take care of the heavier Kakashi while Tsunade carried Kai and hurried towards the hospital with the Sandaime and Naruto in tow. Naruto knew that whatever it was that was wrong, Tsunade would probably be able to fix.

As soon as Kakashi and Kai arrived they were quickly taken to recovery wing were they got a separate room. When the Hokage saw that they were signed in and taken care of he motioned for Naruto to follow him.

"Naruto-kun, I think you understand that whatever jutsu Kai used it shouldn't be used again," the Sandaime said and received a nod from the boy.

"What I could see from your short fight against Kakashi I deem that you, along with your cousin, are worthy of the title of Jōnin, with a small exception. You will not be allowed to go on A or S ranked missions, at least not yet."

Naruto only nodded, receiving the Jōnin rank was more than he expected, judging from how their test went.

"Now, for your first assignment as Jōnin you will take over Hatake Kakashi's genin cell since you along with your cousin was the one who hospitalized their Jōnin-sensei. Also I expect you to come to the on time, Namikaze Naruto." With that said the Hokage walked out, leaving a sputtering behind.

"Tsunade, I trust you to be present at the meeting," the Sandaime said as he walked past the blonde.

"I'll be there sensei,"

"Everyone that's present, this is matter of village security, any information about that one of our best Jōnin is out of action is not to leave this room, if anyone asks for Kakashi you'll say that's he's on a classified mission," with that said the Hokage disappeared using Shunshin.

"Oniisan! Wake up, you got me into this mess, now you take responsibility!" suddenly Naruto could be found on Kai's bed, shaking the older boy while nurses tried to calm down the blond. It wasn't until Tsunade moved the blond from his place that he stopped thrashing.

"Naruto, Kai won't wake up, no matter what you do, he's in a comatose state," Tsunade stated.

"I know he can hear me. You just watch," Naruto said, with tears threatening to make themselves known. "Oniisan, wake up, Haku-chan is changing in here!"

"It seems like he understood the gravity of the situation," Jiraiya said somberly to the Sandaime as they watched as Naruto started to cry in Tsunade's embrace.

"Jiraiya, get Shizune to care for Kai and Kakashi, I'll need to prepare for the meeting." Tsunade ordered.

"Hai Tsunade," in the blink of an eye the gama-sennin was gone.

"Naruto, you will need to prepare as well. I promise you that Shizune will take good care of your cousin in the meantime," Tsunade said soothingly.

* * *

The chamber was filled with chatting; the noise was on a level that was highly unusual for the Konoha council. 

"So what do you think Hokage-sama called us here for?" a man with long blond hair asked his companions, a man with a rather hefty build and a thick red mane for hair and a man with his black hair tied back forming something that resembled a pineapple.

"It's all too trouble some to figure it out Inoichi," the dark-haired man said.

"Maybe it's about…" the hefty man stopped speaking as soon as the Hokage entered the chamber, walking into the room along with his old student Tsunade and… "Isn't that the boy from yesterday? The Uzumaki kid that's going to marry the girl from Suna?" he whispered to his companions.

"Sure looks like it Chouza," the dark-hared man said. At first glance the boy didn't look anything like he did the day before. Now he stood before them wearing the standard Konoha Jōnin outfit along with a royal blue cloak. Somehow he looked older wearing those clothes and in the back of the spectators' minds they noted that he resembled someone they just couldn't place their finger on.

"I am sure you all wonder why I have assembled you so soon after our last meeting," the Hokage stated, silencing everyone.

"Please enlighten us as to why you called us together, Hokage-sama," the Hyuga sitting in the front row said.

"You were all present here yesterday when we discussed the peace proposal with Suna, I have decided to not accept the terms," the Hokage said. The room erupted like volcano, the council members trying to out yell each other. The Hokage's moved his hand into the air, an action that stopped them all, "The reason is that we cannot fulfill one of the parts of the treaty, with a small adjustment though I will accept the terms,"

"What do you mean we can't fulfill a part of the treaty? We don't provide anything," the Hyuga said, the famous Hyuga calm present.

"Oh, but we do Hiashi-san, we were supposed to present one Uzumaki Naruto to marry Sabaku no Temari."

"And why shouldn't we be able to uphold that? The boy is standing just beside you,"

"No, and this brings me to the first announcement I have, I present to you Namikaze Naruto, the new holder of the Namikaze-clan seat in the council," the Hokage said. "Namikaze-san, you may sit down in your seat now,"

Naruto made his way to the seat indicated by the hokage. It was like the Sandaime had dropped a pile of explosive notes in the room as the chamber practically exploded with yells.

"I know that this might come as a shock to you but the heir of Namikaze Minato survived the events thirteen years ago, and have since then been traveling together with Jiraiya of the sannin," the Sandaime said over the din that was Konoha's council chamber.

"Hokage-sama, this is outrageous, he's not even an adult!" one of the merchant council members yelled.

"He's the sole inheritor to the Namikaze seat, when he became a Jōnin this morning he received the seat as it is dictated within his clan scrolls. This is also why he cannot marry, as a member of the Namikaze clan he's not allowed to marry until he reaches the age of fifteen years."

"Then we need to choose another one!" another member yelled.

"We will do no such thing, we will accept their terms without the marriage," the Sandaime stated firmly.

"Now that you've told us the first announcement you had Hokage-sama, I wonder what is the second?" the ever calm Hiashi Hyuga questioned, effectively silencing the other members.

"I have chosen the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade of the sannin,"

The Sandaime's words were met with a complete silence for over a minute until soft clapping started to flow throughout the chamber along with shouts of approval. Amidst all this the Sandaime noticed that the council had forgotten about the newest addition to the council as he was allowed to sit alone on his row.

* * *

Naruto was just walking out of the council chambers when he felt a hand grasp his shoulder, turning him around. "So gaki, you're the new Namikaze clan leader?" the man whose hand laid on his shoulder asked him. 

Naruto looked up at the man, he had black hair and a quite visible tan, two scars on the right side of his face and his hair pulled into a pineapple like pigtail. "Yes, so what?" Naruto said defiantly.

"Whoa kid, calm down. We don't want to start out as an enemy of yours, we only seek to know more about the newest addition to the council. So why don't you join us for a drink," the blond man standing beside the one who held him said.

"Shikaku, Inoichi, where are your manners, you haven't even introduced yourself to the boy," the large man standing on the tanned mans other side said, "You will have to forgive my companions Namikaze-san, my name is Akimichi Chouza and they are Nara Shikaku and Yamanaka Inoichi," the man said, first pointing to the tanned man and then to the blond. "So how about that drink?"

"Well I don't know," Naruto said before he was interrupted as Jiraiya appeared and took him in a chokehold.

"Naruto, never say no to a drink," the gama-sennin said as he released the young blond, "Sure, he'll join you shortly," apparently the gama-sennin decided that he should act for his pupil.

"What the hell are you doing you old pervert? Are you trying to kill me?" Naruto sputtered from the ground.

"Just go along with them, you need to get yourself some allies on the council, even if your clan unofficially holds a lot of power you're acting alone and you need help if you are to have any power at all since you're so young," Jiraiya whispered to his student so that the three men didn't heard him.

"What about oniisan?" Naruto whispered back.

"He won't be moving for a while; it's even a big question if he's going to move. None of the medics have ever seen something like what he and Kakashi suffers from. Now I have to leave, I need to speak with the old man before he turn over the hat tomorrow on the ceremony, I have a favor to ask of him," with that said the white-haired man was gone.

"Namikaze-san, are you joining us then as Jiraiya-sama said?" the blond man asked.

"Yes, I would like that Yamanaka-san," Naruto said cheerfully. Just as the group left the hallway they met a man with black hair and onyx air that gave Naruto a cold glare as he passed by.

"Ignore him, he's Uchiha Shirai, the current leader of the Uchiha clan until Sasuke is considered an adult and fit to take the role.

"I would expect the leader of the Uchiha to be… older,"

"You don't know of the Uchiha massacre?" Inoichi questioned, "Right, you've been away with Jiraiya-sama, I guess he didn't tell you then."

"Seven years ago a majority of the Uchiha was killed by one of their own. The son of the leader and their biggest prodigy ever, Uchiha Itachi. There was only a few of the families that were saved, all thanks to the arrival of several ANBU. The only one that could attest that it had been Itachi who murdered the Uchiha members was his younger brother, apparently the only one who met him and lived that evening. So now there are just five families, along with the sole survivor of the head family Sasuke, living in the Uchiha clan district," Chouza explained to Naruto.

"Well then Namikaze-san, I believe it's time for something to drink," Shikaku said. Naruto hadn't noticed until now but the four of them was now sitting by a table in one of the many small restaurants within Konoha and standing by the table was a waitress ready to take their order.

"Four platters of dango and an equal amount of bottles with sake," Shikaku ordered.

"You were pretty spectacular in the Chūnin exams a month ago, but I never pegged you to be at a Jōnin level, rather I would say you're a high Chūnin," Inoichi said just as their dango and sake arrived.

As the evening continued and the number of bottles standing on the table increased the four shinobi grew louder and louder, and their discussion deviated more and more from matters that didn't need any discretion.

"So Namikaze-kun, you're saying that your cousin is the heir to the Kazama clan?" Inoichi questioned as he poured some more sake for himself.

"Yeah, but currently he can't take his seat because he's lying in a comatose in the Konoha Hospital thanks to a jutsu that he used, he actually managed to get Hatake Kakashi put in the same state," Naruto slurred. The Ino-Shika-Cho trio all whistled at that, managing to knock out the Copy Ninja of Konoha was no mere feat.

"He's the one who knocked out my daughter isn't he?" Inoichi asked.

"Yeah I think so, your daughter is that girl Yamanaka Ino right?"

"Do you think he would like to marry my daughter Namikaze-san?"

"Highly doubt it, my perverted cousin don't like blondes, he seems to favor brunettes,"

"Aw, too bad, having a familial bond with the Kazama clan would be good since they apparently still are alive, say, since you're not marrying the girl from Sunagakure, that means you're free right?"

"No way, your daughter is scary, she's throwing herself at that stuck-up genin with 'formerly-black, now pink' hair."

"What'd you say about my daughter gaki!?" a red faced Inoichi questioned angrily.

"I said she was scary and throwing herself at the stuck up genin," an irate Naruto said.

Shikaku was quick to act even in his slightly blurred state of mind, locking both blonds in place using his Kagemane no Jutsu. "This isn't a reason to fight for, Inoichi as a much older person you should know this very well, and you aren't entirely without blame either. Now both of you sit down and take a calming bottle of sake."

"So Namikaze-san, how do you find Konohagakure?" Chouza asked, steering the topic away from the shinobi related subjects to at least a certain degree; a shinobi was a shinobi village when it all came around.

* * *

Kakashi stared in front of him as he watched a young Kai, perhaps nine or ten years old tried to make a shaking Naruto stop thrashing on the floor. 

"Jiraiya-sensei, hurry here now!" the young boy yelled.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" came the frantic voice of the Gama-sennin from a distance.

Suddenly the young Naruto stopped thrashing and his limbs limply lay on the floor. Kakashi watched as Naruto opened his eyes, staring up at Kai was eyes devoid of any color, the black diamond shaped thin pupils in stark contrast to the white of the eyes.

"Jiraiya, it has awakened!" Kai yelled.

In the blink of his eyes Naruto's eyes changed from their completely white color to a scarlet red, "Finally, I'm in control," Naruto said. Kakashi noted that the voice was much deeper, sinister even. To Kakashi's shock he noted red chakra starting to flow around Naruto, lashing out at Kai's arm and legs that pinned him down. "Release me boy, you don't want to face the consequences,"

The only response from Kai was a grunt of refusal in-between his groans of agony. The chakra whips started beat at his arms and legs more rapidly, tearing through the fabric of his clothes like it was made of paper and covering his skin with nasty wounds. "I won't let you take control of Naruto, even if I have to die for it you're going back to where you came from, you have already created so much anguish."

"We'll see about that boy, no one have ever stood up to me and lived to tell the tale," Naruto said.

"Jiraiya, hurry here, it's much worse than expected. He's gotten control of Naruto!" Kai yelled. Just as Kai turned his face and stared into Naruto's eyes chakra exploded out from the younger boy, sending Kai flying into the roof. Kakashi watched Naruto jumping up from the floor and trying to run through the door, but just as he reached the door-opening he was flung through the room, crashing into the opposite wall.

"That should do it," said a somber Jiraiya as he walked into the room. Kakashi saw that chakra just disappeared from his fingertips, "How bad was it Kai?"

"Kai? Why are you just laying there?" Jiraiya was now rushing to the still form of the younger boy who lay bloodied on the floor, unmoving. "Shit, shit," the white haired man started cursing as he inspected the boy. "Shit, seems like I have to find her, and quickly. Don't go from me kid, you hear me!?" said the now frantic Jiraiya.

Kakashi watched as Jiraiya took the two boys under his arms and quickly ran down the hallway and exited through the closest window. Kakashi found himself forced to follow the white haired man. He watched Jiraiya summoning two toads and handling Naruto to one of the toads while he himself carefully held Kai in his arms while he rode the other toad. They traveled for that for an hour when Kakashi noted that everything around him started to darken. Not like the darkening that came with dusk, it was more like when one lost consciousness. Before he knew it his vision was completely black.

* * *

She watched as the boy started to sweat profusely and for a moment she thought she saw red burn marks appear on his arms. In her mind she was questioning why she was hesitating, here she could kill two birds with one stone, yet she wasn't. Killing both the famous Copy ninja of Konoha, the famous student of the Kiroi no Senkō, and the heir of the Kazama-clan would probably raise her to the heavens back in her home village. Eventually she managed to get herself to move, poising her kunai to strike the Kazama boy in the neck. Just as she was about to swing however the door was opened and quickly she hid her weapon. 

Shizune watched the girl leave the room in a hurry just as she entered. _'How did she get in here?' _she turned around to ask the girl but when she turned around the girl was gone.

* * *

Magen: Tsuikai Demonic illusion: reminiscence 


	4. Reform

Hehe, sorry for being such a lazy person, just didn't find any inspiration for my fourth chapter so took a while. Well here it is at least even if it's really short and all that but it does build up for some things later. Once again, please review, your input is what keeps me going. :D

* * *

It felt just like he had gone through the harshest training Jiraiya and Kai had given him and after that Tsunade had used him as a punching bag and he was suffering from a strong concussion. It felt like his skull had been split oven and the searing pain of someone trying to widen the wound even further. To add to that his vision was blurry and he felt rather queasy. The light within his room stung to his eyes and the light chirping of the birds outside was like a rain of kunai and shuriken against his eardrums. His mouth felt dry and he was sluggishly making his way in the direction of the kitchen to get some water for himself to drink. Upon reaching the kitchen he was forced to shield his eyes against the sunlight within the room with his arms. 

"It's a real pain the first time isn't it," he heard someone comment. The volume of the voice sent another wave of pain against his head, the volume far too high according to his mind.

"Well at least now you can be considered to be a man, you should've seen Kai the first time, damn he was in a bad shape, though he had been drinking a lot more than you did, so you're not as deep of as he was."

Naruto felt something pressed into his hand by the elder man, looking up close at the object held between his fingers he noted that it was a small pill, roughly the size of a ladybug. The color of the pill was half yellow and the other half a brilliant green, "What's this sensei?" Naruto questioned, slurring slightly.

"A pill your cousin and Tsunade managed to develop, gets you back on track in no time," the elder man explained, "So do you remember anything from yesterday?"

Jiraiya watched as his student swallowed the pill, shuddering at the taste, just like he, Kai and Tsunade did every time they ate it. Apparently it was impossible to improve the flavor of it, Kai and Tsunade had tried multiple times, but everytime it tasted decently it had no effect.

"I remember going to the bar with Yamanaka-san, Nara-san and Akimichi-san and eating some dango there and drinking a bottle of sake, then it's all kinda blurry," Naruto actually felt as a feeling of freshness started to travel from the pit of his stomach and after a minute or two he felt like he usually did in the morning, though with a light headache and a little off balance. His vision had cleared and the chirping of the birds outside wasn't unbearable.

Jiraiya went out of the kitchen when he heard someone knocking on his door. Standing there was a chūnin messenger. "Hokage-sama have asked me to tell Naruto-san that he's due to meet his team at the western bridge in five minutes, could you do that for me please," the man said before he poofed out of existence using shunshin,

"Oi gaki, Sarutobi-sensei's messenger told me to tell you that you're due to meet your team at the western bridge in five minutes," Jiraiya said as he entered the kitchen. Staring back at him was a surprised Naruto, "Have you forgotten that sensei assigned team Seven to you since their leader is taken out of action? You know when you and your cousin knocked him into a coma, leading to your cousin's comatose state as well. By the way I was wondering what happened to Seiryutou?"

At first Naruto stared back at his sensei doubting, then a sudden look of realization dawned upon him, "Shit, he's gonna kill me! I gotta go sensei, see you," standing alone in the kitchen was Jiraiya holding a translucent box containing more green and yellow pills. Opening the box and popping one pill into his mouth the man just shrugged.

* * *

The members of genin team seven were all used to the tardiness of their teacher. Today, just like any other day, he was late. When they heard the telltale sound of shunshin they all turned around in the direction of the sound, Sasuke giving a glare while his female member started her usual tirade. 

"You're late sensei!" Sakura yelled angrily.

"I'm sorry but I got lost way on the way here, you see there was this little miscalculation of mine that got me sent to the other side of time, I have a terrible headache and my cousin is going to kill me for not getting his weapon immediately and now it's lost,"

"You!" Sasuke and Sakura screeched upon seeing the blond standing there.

"No, don't tell me…" Naruto said upon seeing the two pink haired genin.

"You're gonna be on our team!?" "I'm gonna teach you lot!?" the three persons yelled together.

"You're replacing Kakashi-sensei Naruto-san?" the third genin asked, making his presence known.

"Yeah, at least for a while, Kakashi-san was sent on an important mission," Naruto said as he started to massage his temples. His headache had just gotten a lot worse. _'Damn you Jiraiya, those pills worked for like twenty minutes! Now it's even worse, you said they would get me back in action in no time.'_

"Okay, I think some introduction is due, my name is Namikaze Naruto, I'm going to be the temporary leader for team seven during an unknown time, now cold face, pinkie one and pinkie two, tell me your names,"

"My name is Sai," the only darkhaired member of the team said.

"I'm Haruno Sakura," the girl said.

"Uchiha Sasuke," the third member said while he still glared daggers at the blond.

"I suppose you're done the tree-walking and water-walking exercises right?" Naruto questioned. To his surprise only one of them nodded, "So only Sai have done the tree-walking and water-walking exercises?"

"Kakashi-sensei has shown us the tree-walking exercise, however not the water-walking exercise," the girl said.

Naruto could do little else then sigh; apparently this was going to be a long day for the newly assigned Jōnin.

Team Gai was doing their usual training routine and was currently running their ten laps around the village walls when to their surprise they saw the genin of team seven approaching them from behind. It almost looked like the Kyuubi no Kitsune was hot on their heels deeming from their expressions. Even the seemingly stoic Sai showed fear in his eyes.

"Sakura-san!" Lee exclaimed when the three genin rushed past.

"Such flames of youth!" Gai exclaimed, "My youthful students, we cannot let their flames of youth burn brighter than our, let's catch up to them!" Lee and Gai increased their pace as did the two remaining members of the team, albeit grudgingly.

"You look exhausted," Neji commented upon seeing them up close. All of the members of team seven looked ready to fall to the ground yet they were continuing their pace. They were covered in bruises and shallow wounds as well and looked much paler than they usually did. In one word they looked like shit though the Hyuga would not resort to the usage of such words.

"Yeah, you should take a break, why don't take a stop at the creek five hundred meters ahead," Tenten proposed.

"No!" the three members of team seven replied with so much fervor that it was unbelievable, sure Sakura could be loud but Sasuke was known to be the silent type who doesn't show his emotions and Sai was seemingly incapable of expressing emotions, until now. The three were now even paler than before; making them almost as white as the whitest of sheets.

From seemingly of nowhere a kunai landed amongst their midst, the three genin of team seven abruptly increased their speed to a mad dash. A second later a hail of kunai started to rain down on the earlier positions of the three genin alongside team Gai.

From a distance Naruto chuckled, he was starting to enjoy this. Now he understood why his cousin had expanded on this training method Jiraiya had used on them, it was fun to be the instructor. Also it made the trainee understand the importance of being alert, unless he wanted to end up as a kunai-cushion. He was about to move out from his position when he found himself dodging an incoming attack, that to his horror split the tree he sat in into several smaller pieces. As soon as the first attack was over another attacker appeared that made dust of the smaller pieces when Naruto countered using the assailants own power to throw into the rubble. Next there was a rain shuriken that came down upon him that forced him to do several back-flips before it had stopped. When he landed he found himself at the end of someone's palm, pressed to his neck.

"Do you yield peacefully?" the person behind him asked.

"Yeah, guess so," Naruto said upon seeing people closing in from the corner of his eyes.

"Who are you and why were you attacking Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura and Sai of team seven?" the apparent leader of the guys that captured him questioned. _'Maito Gai was his name right?'_ Naruto asked himself.

"I wasn't attacking them, I was training them," Naruto replied.

"Throwing kunai is counted as attacking," the carbon copy of the elder Jōnin said, "What if you had hurt my beloved Sakura-san! And what else is that the sensei of team seven is none other than Gai-sensei's eternal rival, Hatake Kakashi-san!"

"I'm the replacement for that Hatake Kakashi, and if I say it is training then it's training. This is the soft version, the original is much harder."

"How can you be the sensei for them? I remember you from the Chūnin exams and you look younger than we are," the girl of the team said.

"You see this vest?" Naruto questioned and pointed to his west, "This is something only worn by the Jōnin of Konoha, and therefore it signifies me as one of them. By having the rank of Jōnin I can teach a team of genin and lead them on missions. Since Hatake Kakashi currently is unavailable I have been assigned as the temporary Jōnin-sensei of team seven." Naruto smiled smugly at the girl and then at the genin in a green jumpsuit.

"Yosh, then release the youthful Naruto-kun who have reached the rank of Jōnin already so he can continue to tutor his team, we ourselves must continue our laps, as a punishment for pausing we shall double the amount we're going to undertake, and if we can't manage to do that before the set time for the next exercise then we shall kick a log with each of our limbs a thousand times!" Gai exclaimed. Lee roared his approval while the two other members groaned loudly.

Far away Jiraiya watched as his student "tutored" his team until team Gai had come and interrupted. _'And the gaki says that my training was harsh, Kai's was harsher, yet his own is the worst of us, at least I was only occasionally throwing kunai at them,'_ Jiraiya almost felt sorry for the genin of team seven, almost.

* * *

"He's the worst," Sasuke said as he sat himself down by the river flowing through the western part of the village, dipping his feet into the cool water. 

"I can't believe I'm actually saying this but I want Kakashi-sensei back!" Sakura wailed seating herself beside the Uchiha heir.

"For once Forehead-girl I agree with you," the final member of the team said as he seated himself against a nearby tree and took out his drawing pad and started to draw.

"Everyone shall assemble outside the Hokage tower for an important announcement!" a loud and authoritative voice said, a voice they recognized as the Sandaime's. The three members groaned, they had all just gotten a break from training and then the Sandaime asks for their presence. They slowly made their way towards the Hokage tower, when they arrived five minutes later they found the outside of the tower crowded with seemingly the entire village. The three genin was quick to spot their companions from the ninja Academy.

"So do you guys know what's happening here?" Sasuke questioned as he walked up to the other genin.

"It's far too troublesome to explain, also I'm not supposed to speak of it," a disinterested Shikamaru said as he looked at the members of team seven, "So what happened to you, or wait, I think it's far too troublesome to hear," Shikamaru didn't feel like listening to Sakura's ranting for an hour or two right now. The clouds were perfect now and here he was waiting for an announcement he already knew of, thanks to his father, instead of watching the clouds.

The rookie nine noticed that the whole area had ended all conversation and looking up at the Hokage tower they spotted the Sandaime standing on his balchony looking out over the assembled people.

"I am sure you wonder why I have called you here today," the Hokage said, "This is a matter of great importance to our village, I have found my successor to take the place as the Godaime Hokage."

The entire area had gone still. Even if someone had attacked the village they would probably not react to the assault. It was only now that the audience noticed that the Sandaime didn't wear the traditional robes nor the hat.

"My old student, Tsunade of the Sannin," as soon as the woman's name was said she stepped into view, wearing the traditional robes and hat.

"I promise I shall do my best to have this village remain the strongest village of the elemental countries," the Godaime Hokage exclaimed. At first she was only met with silence that a moment later exploded into applauses and shouts of approval.

"Tsunade-sama is our new Hokage?" Tenten asked as she came running up to the rookie nine. Apparently they had been far off doing training when the Hokage's announcement came.

"Yeah," Kiba said, "Why does a chick get to be the Hokage, it should be some cool guy! They could have chosen me," no-one saw how it happened but a second later Kiba's head could be found under Tenten's foot, grinding the ground.

"Sandaime-sama, that was mean, now I can't be Hokage for a long time, Tsunade is the best medic-nin so she won't die for a long time! I thought you was only kidding to shut the council members up back then," Naruto wailed within the Hokage's room.

The woman in question was hardpressed to smile to the audience below with the annoying brat in the background talking about her death and how far it was off and that he couldn't become the Hokage with her as the Hokage. _'As soon as I'm done here you're going to know a world of righteous retribution, now you don't have your cousin here to take the brunt of the attack, it's just you and me, consequences be damned.' _Tsunade said within her mind.

"My first act as Hokage will be to announce that there has been some changes in the agreement with Sunagakure, we of Konoha have decided to withdraw one of our demands, namely the marriage of Uzumaki Naruto and the daughter of the Kazekage,"

The statement left everyone present in a state of surprise, either it was because Konoha withdrew one of their demands, the demand that was a tradition, or it was because she spoke about the Kazekage, not the Yondaime Kazekage it was a fine detail that only the most perceptive persons would notice. Everyone knew that the Yondaime Kazekage had mysteriously disappeared, his personal guards had been found murdered in the middle of the desert along with the Kazekage's bloodied clothes. For the Suna council the statement was not one surprise but it was both cases. Temari started to cry in relief over that she didn't have to marry someone from the leaf village, she got to return back to her own village.

The crowd was about to verbally respond when a man garbed in the traditional robes of the Kazekage walked out on the balcony of the Hokage tower.

"It can't be…" one of the Suna council members said.

"I am unlike the most of you think not dead, in fact I've been living within these walls for the last months under the care of one of the Sannin after the betrayal of Orochimaru who had left me for dead in the desert," the Kazekage said in a steely voice.

* * *

'_I gotta get out of here__ while I can. Tsuchikage-sama will be glad to receive such a fine gift as this,'_ the girl thought as she started to make her way out of the village. The streets were deserted, it was just like a ghost town, _"Well no need to hurry, I can take my time to get to home. Finally I can do some of that shopping I've been longing to do! I think it is Suna first, they have according to my sources the best coffee in the elemental countries." _

* * *

"Temari," the man said in a monotone. The girl was taken out of her thoughts when she heard that voice, the voice belonging to her cold father 

"Hai Otō-sama?"

"I wish for you to remain in this village, you will be the liaison between our villages in this new time of peace," the Kazekage said, his voice now held a warmth to it that puzzled Temari, it was a long time since she had heard her father speak of anything with something that resembled emotion, only in the deepest parts of her mind did she recall it, it was the time before her youngest brother had been turned into a living weapon, a time which she had a hard time to remember.

"Hai Otō-sama," Temari said downtrodden, she had hoped that she would be able to return home along with her brothers.

"That's my daughter. Now is the time for me to take my leave. I have been told that Tsunade-sama will see to all your accommodations," the Kazekage said wistfully.

* * *

Tsunade of the sannin, recently pronounced Godaime Hokage, was sitting in her new office signing paperwork while occasionally taking a swig of sake as soon as her assistant Shizune turned her gaze to the outside or towards the Chūnin entering the room. Tsunade could imagine how the Sandaime now was sitting with the perverted sannin drinking sake in the sun, enjoying their free time while she was bunked up in a stuffy office on the top floor of the Hokage tower signing papers. 

"Shizune," Tsunade declared, "I'm done with the paperwork now, can I go?"

Shizune just gazed at her master not showing any emotion, the older woman just sighed before she went to the next duty of the day, assigning missions. Ever since Tsunade had gained the position of Godaime it was Tsunade that asked for permission from Shizune and not the other way around. The young woman would have yelled in glee, if the threat of Tsunade most likely punishing her if she was made aware of the control that Shizune had been given over her master hadn't loomed over her.

"Anyways, I don't see why I have to be there and assign the missions, the chūnin there knows perfectly well how to do it. I could be doing something useful like helping out at the hospital instead of sitting in the mission room," Tsunade argued as the pair walked towards the mission room. Bursting through the doors Tsunade came face to face with the young Namikaze clanhead and his team.

"Old lady, I've been going on D-rank missions for a month with these brats now, I demand a B-rank mission!" said the young clanhead heatedly.

Tsunade's bad day had just turned even worse; speaking merely on instinct she started her own tirade, "You know that I can't assign your team a B-rank! They are only genin and it's out of the question to assign over C-rank to genin, do you know what the council would do with me if I sent you along with the Uchiha prodigy on a B-rank mission?" upon seeing the blond boy standing there sheepishly shifting his feet she continued, "They would question my judgement in sending the last member of the Namikaze clan on a B-rank along with only genin to his help even if you are Jōnin you're still only thirteen years old and that isn't enough in their eyes, they want a heir to your damn clan before I send you off on potential suicide missions."

"Can we get a C-rank then at least," Naruto asked with a smile, "we're tired of weeding gardens and fetching runaway cats," to indicate his point he pointed to the claw marks on Sasuke's arms and face.

Tsunade had a hard time not to point out that Naruto did have some common sense after all, he didn't involve himself in those missions as she had hoped. She had been planning to let him do D-rank for a few months as a punishment for what he had told her in the Hokage office back when she was declared Godaime Hokage but with the council pressuring her to let the prodigal Uchiha take higher ranking missions she had to relent. "Fine, you and your team will receive a C-rank mission.


	5. Patrol

The thick grey shroud clouding his vision had started to dissipate, allowing him to see the contours of a white room holding only a bed and a nightstand. As his vision started to focus the man became aware of a burning sensation flowing throughout his body, rising in intensity by the second. It was like his body was lit ablaze and eventually the pain became unbearable and the man started to howl out in pain, the back of his mind registering that another person started to scream of pure pain a few moments later.

* * *

Iwagakure, one of the major shinobi powers among the elemental countries. The village was known for their prowess with Doton techniques and their tactical knowledge. In the past they were without question the strongest village of all shinobi villages, before that war, before that cursed man had entered the battlefield killing their best seemingly without any effort. The Tsuchikage was rubbing his temple, this was no time to remember the past, a past he wished never occurred. No, the man should focus on the present instead, his adjutant had just told him that his student was returning from her mission in Konoha, pronouncing that she brought urgent news and a cargo worth more than all ryō the village received during one year. The last report said she would be within the borders of Iwa in approximately two days since she had to take a roundabout to avoid the heavily patrolled borders from Konoha.

* * *

So far her self-imposed vacation had come along smoothly, she had managed to get what she was looking for and had been having two months vacation from any strenuous tasks and didn't have to use any jutsus to disguise herself, the simple removal of her Hitai-ate was enough to lose all chances of recognition as she travelled Suna. Sometimes it paid off to be a rather unknown Jōnin. It wasn't the travels within Suna territory that was the hard part; it was getting outside of it that would be hard. Even with their shinobi strength reduced, something that would please her kage, Suna's borders were well guarded. She had noted that a few Konoha-nin could be seen from time to time travelling around in Kaze no kuni, more that what should be normal, even if there probably still were some ongoing negotiations between Konoha and Suna. As if on cue she had to throw herself onto the dune she was walking over, hiding herself under a light genjutsu as a Konoha genin came flying over her. She noted that it was Uchiha Sasuke, soon followed by his two teammates and that blond boy who had been promoted to Jōnin just as she left Konoha.

To her dismay she saw how the blond Jōnin called them to a stop just thirty yards away from her position, ordering the genin to take a break. She had no means of escaping without alerting the Jōnin, the use of any jutsu may be enough for him to sense her chakra, even using her genjutsu was stretching it due to the teams' proximity as it wasn't made for long term usage. As she lay there under the sun's hot rays she cursed that she hadn't used a fūton jutsu to cool her body, the heat was only increasing as it approached noon. It seemed like the Konoha team was going to stay put there for a while as the blond was now raising a wall-less tent as protection from the sun during the worst hours.

Three hours later and she felt utterly exhausted; her mouth was dry and the tongue swollen, an evidence of her dehydration. There had been some tense moments as she lay there, one of them being when the blond started to walk in her direction, his eyes full of determination. At first she thought that he had spotted her and was walking up to capture her but to her immense relief he had walked straight past, still much too close for her comfort, and walked to the other 

side of the dune, seemingly looking for something. But to her immense relief she saw the genin starting to take down the tent and when she saw the genin team disappear beyond one of the larger dunes she sighed with relief as she released the genjutsu and hungrily reached for the canteen she had in her backpack, only to find it gone.

"Looking for something?" she heard a voice inquire from above her. Her head snapped into the direction of the voice, revealing the blond boy standing there, holding her only remaining water canteen in his hand. In an instant she was on her feet, lunging at the Jōnin with one of her kunai, only to find herself crashing into the sand after only a single step, dizziness overcoming her as her vision started to blur and she also felt a slight nauseous feeling before her vision turned completely black as she fell into the soft blanket of unconsciousness.

Naruto looked at the girl, a few years older than him, laying in the sand collapsed. He had figured that she would eventually show due to thirst if they stayed in the area, but she was more disciplined than he had expected and had only gone out of hiding once she felt assured that his team were gone from the area. He noted that the girl had the Seiryūtou strapped to her back, but at the moment her condition was of more concern, even if she were awake he doubted that she would be able to run away from him. What he didn't get was what she was going to do with her canteen of water even if they had continued on; the container had already been as good as empty when he had taken it. Soon the three students along with his bunshin arrived at his position.

"Sakura, hand me one of the water containers," Naruto ordered urgently. The pink-haired girl was quick to comply and as soon as Naruto had the bottle in his hand he splashed some in the girl's face, getting her out of her into a semi-conscious state. The girl had no time to get any clearer on her situation as she found the opening of a bottle pressed to her closed lips, a cool liquid teasing her senses. It didn't take her long before she was greedily consuming the water, all too soon the container was empty.

"More, please," the girl's voice was weak and hoarse, Sakura had to strain her ears to hear what she said. Seeing the nod from her sensei she gave him another bottle of water. At the moment the older girl didn't care that she had been found out by the genin team from Konoha, no, right now her thirst was so much greater. After consuming three bottles of water she felt a lot better, but she still felt immensely drained and she doubted she even had the strength to take on the Uchiha, much less the blond boy who apparently was strong enough to make Jōnin in the short time he had been within Konoha. The immensely heavy weapon strapped to her back didn't help her in the least, to take of the weapon required some effort from her side, somethings he doubted she was able to do in her state as well.

"Well, let's head back to the camp, congratulations, we just captured our first trespasser," Naruto said half-heartedly to the three genin as she slung the older girl over his left shoulder, making the girl emit a weak "eek".

"Ne, sensei, are we going to leave her to Suna now?" Sakura questioned as they made their way towards their camp.

"No Sakura, this girl have something that belongs to Konoha so we are going to forego the usual routine and bring her directly to Konoha, I'm going to cut this mission short so we are just going to make a quick stop at one of the border patrol centers to tell them that Suna shinobi are going to have to patrol this area from tomorrow since we'll be leaving at dawn."



Absentmindedly the girl on Naruto's shoulder cursed her luck, everything had been going smoothly, until now. At the critical moment just as she was going to go home free, luck decided to leave her. Now she was captured, by Konoha ninja even! _'Well, it could be worse, had they known exactly who I am then I would be in deep shit,'_ the girl thought to herself.

Sakura decided to study the girl more closely as there was nothing to do while travelling through a desert with nothing to see other than sand dunes and then some more sand dunes. The girl looked to be around three years older than Sakura and had long light brown hair, her skin was rather pale for someone who had been in a desert, yet it showed no signs of sunburns. The girl's eyes were emerald green and had a glassed over look, most likely due to her disheveled state of having been in the desert for too long without water. She estimated the girl to be above average in height and have a medium weight. At first she didn't see anything that may belong to Konoha, the girl looked like any ordinary citizen of the elemental countries although she carried a lot and had a guan dao strapped to her back, that was when it struck her that she had seen Naruto's cousin wield a similar weapon during the Chūnin examination. Before she could ask Naruto if that was the thing he was talking to they had arrived at their camp, Naruto telling Sasuke and Sai to prepare their things so that they could leave early in the morning.

"Sakura," the blond boy had now turned towards the pink-haired girl as he set down girl he had been carrying on the ground, holding her standing even though she looked like she could collapse any moment, apparently she still hadn't regained her strength.

"Hai sensei?" the girl questioned.

"Remove all your weapons, and when I say all weapons I mean every single of them. After that check her for any weapons and remove her backpack and then give anything you find to me," Naruto ordered.

Sakura did as she was told and did a full body check on the girl and found that the girl had hidden a lot of weapons on her person. She also found that the girl was rather well-endowed for her age, but she hid it using chest bindings, and within those bindings the girl had hidden a few shuriken as well, much to Sakura's dismay as she had to unbind and rebind them.

"Uzumaki Hijutsu ougi: Sokubaku no Jutsu hangeki," Naruto said as he touched each girls shoulder. A moment later a seal formed on the brunette girl's neck that looked just like a dragon. "Sakura she will sleep in your tent tonight and you'll be charged with keeping her there so you will be excused from guard duty tonight." Naruto informed his student, "Now, don't kill my genin, do that and you will suffer the same fate as she does. Hurt her and the same will happen to you, anything you do to her will befall yourself. You are also now bound to her and cannot walk any further than three meters away, this is to ensure our safety and that you can't escape. Sakura, go and prepare as well, we're leaving as the first sunray touches this site. And Sakura… be sure to repeat what I said to her when she wakes up properly, she probably only heard half of what I said just now, and then she probably won't even remember anything of it," with that said Sakura was left alone with the brunette girl who still looked only semi-conscious.

As Naruto walked away he had to use every ounce of self-control to not shout out in glee over the girl they had managed to capture, he was going to live after all. The Seiryūtou was in his hands and Kai would be none the wiser when they arrived back in Konoha, he could just put 

the blade by Kai's bedside and then use a chakra shackle to bind the weapon to his cousin. Now the only problem was that the blade absorbed chakra, he'd have to figure something out on the way to Konoha. _'There is something familiar about that girl, like I've seen her before…'_

"So that's the situation, if you could send some of your own ninja there to patrol that area would be appreciated, we really got to get this girl to Konoha as soon as possible," Naruto said with a smile towards the Chūnin in duty at their nearest patrol base in the direction of Konoha.

"But Namikaze-san, the reason why we requested a Konoha team to cover that area is because we have no other rested team to use, a large portion of our shinobi are resting from wounds received in… our misguided attack on your village,"

"Come on Chichiro-chan, I really gotta go and drop off this girl in Konoha or my cousin might chop my head off, and you don't want to have that responsibility on your shoulders now do you?" Naruto said with a sultry grin making the girl blush. _'Jackpot, at least Ero-sennin's teachings about this was good for something,' _Naruto thought as he saw the hesitant nod the kunoichi gave him. He had used a subtle genjutsu that Jiraiya had developed three years ago. It worked on a subconscious level and was very effective in conning females to do things for him. He remembered the cause very well; it had been Kai that had planted the seeds for that technique within Jiraiya's mind. The mention of making a jutsu that made men impregnable against the puppy dog eyes that females were so adept at using against men to make them do things for them had been the simple cause, but instead of making a counter against that Jiraiya had decided to enhance that technique and make it into a subtle genjutsu instead so one didn't even need to learn it, besides puppy dog eyes just looked creepy on elder men. Jiraiya had managed to isolate the beneficial parts and then combine them to make the genjutsu do so one appeared to be unbelievable cute or handsome, even in the case of elder men. _'It was a dark day for women, a glorious one for self-proclaimed super-perverts,' _Naruto remarked thinking back at it.

"Okay, I'll have a team go out there, but you owe me one!" the girl said as she waved him away, her flush receding, only to come back tenfold when the boy gave her a peck on the cheek.

"Bye Chichiro-chan!" the boy said cheerfully as he left the building to meet up with his team. That went easier than he thought it would even when he was taking the persuasive effect of the genjutsu into effect.

"All right team, let's move out. We got a three days journey to do in two days time, at most," Naruto said, snapping his team out of their daze. "Sakura make sure that the cute brunette keeps up and don't slow us down,"

Much to Naruto's surprise the team actually made it within the time he had said when they sat out for their journey. He did notice that the team had picked up speed once he mentioned increasing their training if they didn't make it in time though… _'Might have some connection,' _But once the three teens came within the gates of Konoha they had collapsed, surprising the guards and Naruto. The girl was only slightly more winded than Naruto, 

something Naruto didn't know what to make off. There wasn't many that could keep up with him stamina wise, hell, within Konoha there were probably only four persons that were close to his level and still they weren't too close to him.

"Come on Hime, let's get you to Hokage-sama so we can have that weapon you stole returned," Naruto said as he released the seal he had placed on Sakura and the girl. "Can you get these guys sent to the hospital, I think they would need some rest," Naruto told the guards as he gestured the genin of team seven. The two Chūnin just nodded before one of them took off, probably to get someone to move them since they couldn't leave the gate unguarded.

* * *

Tsunade's day had started wonderfully, Shizune was away making some check-ups on Kakashi and Kai and thus the elder woman had a chance to cheerfully drink some sake without the younger woman there to bug her. When there was a loud knock on the door before it was thrown open she couldn't help but angrily yell out at the person disturbing her peaceful sake drinking moment. "Get the hell out, can't you see that I'm busy here?"

"It's important stuff!" said the, according to Tsunade, annoying voice belonging to an even more annoying boy.

"Naruto, what are you doing here?" Tsunade questioned upon seeing the blond boy entering her office. "You're not supposed to be back for another five days."

"Well, I ran into the runaway Seiryūtou and I wanted it back here as fast as possible, I don't plan on being one head shorter if nii-san manages to wake up any day now, the faster it's back here the better."

"It was gone?" Tsunade questioned, she hadn't heard anything about that.

"Well, I would bet it was this girl who stole it. Must've taken it after nii-san was knocked unconscious by his own jutsu and we had left the field," Naruto walked outside the office and dragged a rather long girl with long light brown hair into the office, nearly making Tsunade choke on the sake she was discreetly drinking while the blond had walked outside the office door.

"Heion Cerezia, you managed to catch that man's kid!?" Tsunade gasped out.

"Who's kid?" Naruto questioned, that name did ring a bell in his head though.

"The Tsuchikage, you captured the Tsuchikage's brat! This is some royal mess you've managed Naruto. He could very possibly declare war on us for taking her captive! He's not the kind of man that backs away from conflicts, in fact he revels in them." the blonde woman ranted, making Naruto shrink under her gaze.

"Let her go, forget that any of this happened," Tsunade ordered. She couldn't risk waging war with Iwa right now, the recent invasion attempt had drained Konoha's morale and if Iwa mounted an attack against Konoha it was likely that they would reach them before their allies could come to reinforce them. Surely Taki and Ame would join Iwa in the invasion, glad to gain some more land from Hi no kuni, their alliance with Taki was tender at best even in shinobi terms.

"But she stole the Seiryūtou! It's a Kazama heirloom, it should warrant enough reason for us to keep her, and we should be able to get out something from the Tsuchikage in case he wants her back dearly, I'm sure that their council would be opposed to the idea of a war just for one girl, even if it is their kage's daughter."

Tsunade could only sigh in frustration; apparently Jiraiya had forgotten to teach the operational system in Iwa. "Naruto, Iwa is different from Konoha. In Iwa the Kage's words are absolute, the council is merely there to give him pointers, to aide him, otherwise he is the sole ruler. If the Tsuchikage wants something, then the Tsuchikage does that and all of Iwa follows him like they want the same." _'Kami-sama, sometimes I envy the Tsuchikage, I heard he could load off over half his paper work to the council without them complaining,'_

"Well then let's keep her hidden, since she was passing from Suna I bet he'd suspect Suna before us, so in any case they would be attacked first, and I honestly don't believe he would senselessly march out without any evidence, so if we keep her presence hidden it should be no problem," Naruto said. He really didn't want to let her go, in case Kai noticed anything he didn't want to be the one to face Kai's wrath, it would be better if the girl was the one that was Kai's target.

Before Tsunade hammered down the blond's idea a voice interrupted her, a voice belonging to a white haired old man, "Actually, keeping the girl wouldn't be that bad. It would make a great bargaining chip really. Heion Renji has changed since when you knew him Tsunade, and the rumors of his blood thirst are just that, rumors. He prefers peace over anything if possible; it was just in his younger days as a commander of Iwa when he was ruthless, now he's taking care of his people, seeing to their welfare before anything else. And you know what Naruto, that little pesky girl have changed into a nice little lady, just imagine in a few years," the perverted old man couldn't help but let out a perverted giggle.

Naruto just stared at Jiraiya in confusion as he watched him narrowly avoid a crushing blow from Tsunade. _'Am I supposed to know her?'_

Seeing the boy's confusion Jiraiya only sighed and his face grew serious, something that prompted Tsunade to stop her attempts at beating him. "You can't remember when we were living outside Iwagakure? She's the girl that you guys were playing with, she was also the one that showed you around in Iwagakure," everyone in the room, sans Jiraiya, were now gaping. Tsunade couldn't believe that Jiraiya had lived outside Iwagakure with the risks of getting captured, he was pretty known after all, and then he had also allowed his two protégés to wander alone, entering a town on slightly hostile terms, one of the protégés being the son of the late Yondaime Hokage and almost the perfect image of said Hokage as well.

"You mean this is Ce-chan?" Naruto questioned disbelievingly. It had been quite a few years ago since that time, but he still had some vague memories of that time.

"Yupp, that was what you called her I think. Do you remember how enamored she was with Kai,"



"Kai…" Cerezia said hesitantly, vaguely she could remember the boy in the back of her mind, "You can't possibly be Na-kun, he had brown hair and green eyes,"

"Jiraya, how old were they when you took them to Iwa?" Tsunade said through gritted teeth. If the council heard of this it would cause a lot of ruckus.

"Hm… I think Naruto was five when we got there, bailed out of there when he was seven, when 'that' happened. So I guess Kai was ten…" Jiraiya said absentmindedly, "And to answer your question girl, Naruto here has known the henge since age three, he's a genius in its usage so he was pretty much using it all the time back then."

"So Hokage-sama, what are we doing, releasing her or keeping her?" Naruto questioned, it was supposed to be quick. He wanted her in an holding cell as quickly as possible so he could go and do something else.

"We'll keep her here in Konoha until further notice, if what Jiraiya said about the Tsuchikage not being a war loving fool is true then it should prove beneficial," Tsunade said. Naruto moved to take the girl to the holding cells but was interrupted as Tsunade started to speak again, "However, since it was your idea and Jiraiya was the one that got me to agree I charge you two with the holding of her in Konoha and making sure no-one knows of her presence. As far as I know you should be able to seal her within some of the rooms of the Kazama estate, there should be enough space there."

The plan had succeded, and the come and backfired on him. Instead of less work Naruto got another burden placed on him. He could only sigh in defeat, hadn't he pushed for keeping her at all he wouldn't have to guard her.

As always, please review.

I know it was a long time since last update, but at least an update came even though it's probably not that good.


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